Chapter Ten

Ladybug stared at nothing for several seconds before jerking herself into motion. The longer she stood there, the farther away the akuma got. The longer Cat Noir chased the akuma without a partner, the more danger he'd be in. He was long out of sight, but she took off in the direction he'd gone, glaring into the beating sunlight.

He'd been serious. This whole time, he'd been serious. How could she not have realized it before? How could she have misread him so badly? The answer was obvious. She was an terrible partner.

Guilt twisted in her stomach as she pushed her muscles until they burned, trying to catch up. Buildings flashed in a blur below her. How could she have been so callous when she pushed his flirting away? What else about him had she misunderstood?

She only stopped when she was completely out of breath and pulled open her yoyo to find Cat Noir's location. A green dot was careening toward her red one, and she snapped her head up just in time to see him bound up and over a neighboring building, Chantal right behind him.

"It's too bad you'll never know!" he was yelling over his shoulder.

"Hold still and tell me who you are!" Chantal dove, but he jumped over her, and she missed. They hadn't seen Ladybug yet. She could still set up an ambush. All she had to do was keep out of sight and focus on the mission. This wasn't the time for self-indulgent wallowing.

The two were still running, already several rooftops away, but Ladybug could clearly make out Cat Noir jumping off a tall building. As Ladybug swung closer, Chantal skidded to a stop to look over the edge before jumping to a balcony three stories down and following Cat Noir onto the sidewalk below, then up again. She may have had supernatural abilities, but she apparently couldn't handle large drops as well as the baton. Ladybug filed that information away for later.

When she had crept close enough to hear, Cat Noir was saying something about wanting to keep his purr-sonal in-fur-mation to himself as he inched closer to Chantal, who had positioned herself on top of a chimney, hands on her hips. Ladybug positioned herself directly behind her target, clearly in Cat Noir's line of sight.

He took a step backward when he saw her, carefully keeping his face blank. "I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm running out of puns." Ladybug raised her yoyo and aimed.

"That sounds unlikely," Chantal said, voice flat once again.

"I know," he said. "I wouldn't have thought it paw-sible."

She let the yoyo fly. Cat Noir caught her eye and smiled triumphantly at her. Another wave of guilt made Ladybug jerk reflexively, and a crack split the air as the yoyo hit the brick chimney instead of wrapping around its target.

Chantal jumped up to escape, but Cat Noir was too quick. The extended baton knocked her out of her trajectory. She landed in heap, slipping down the roof a few inches as both heroes ran to her. Cat Noir reached the akuma first, reaching out to grab her before she went over the edge.

"No, Cat! It's a trap!"

Chantal whipped her hands out toward his face, but Ladybug was close enough to yank her partner out of harm's way by his tail. The woman's sudden movement unbalanced her, and she slipped off the edge, only to reappear a second later, jumping away to another roof.

"Phew. She's fine," Cat Noir said as he straightened up. "Scared me for a second there."

How could he be so relaxed? She couldn't even bear to look at him, and she wasn't the one who was getting rejected. It was so much easier to stand there and wring her hands and watch as Chantal stared them down from across the street. At least it looked like she was getting tired. Her shoulders sagged, and she was breathing heavily.

"Did you want to keep just my tail, or did you want the whole package?" Cat Noir said as he gestured to himself.

Ladybug glanced down at her hands, which were still gripping his tail for dear life. She flinched and dropped it, but didn't say anything, and still didn't look at him. She should say something.

"Ah, sorry," Cat Noir said, scratching the back of his neck. "I made everything weird, didn't I?"

"Don't apologize," she said quietly. "Thank you for telling me." She was relieved she didn't have to say anything else, that she didn't have to explain why she couldn't return his feelings, but she immediately smothered the relief with guilt. He shouldn't have had to find out that way. He'd deserved to hear it from her. How had she not seen the hurt? He'd looked so happy. Even now, she couldn't see it.

A tentative hand rested on her shoulder, and Ladybug finally turned to face him. She couldn't see any pain, just concern for her. "This doesn't have to change anything," he said. "Okay?" He was constantly putting her feelings before his own. How could she not have realized he was serious sooner?

"Sure," she said. It felt like a lie. This changed their entire dynamic.

Chantal was looking up and down the street, probably planning her next move. Mission now, wallowing later. "Splitting up hasn't worked, so how about this time we just hit her together head on?"

"Sounds paw-sitively-"

The woman in black went suddenly rigid, and Cat Noir sucked in a sharp breath.

"What?"

"Hawk Moth," he said. "Can't you see the butterfly?"

Ladybug frantically looked around for another akuma before she realized he had been talking about Chantal. The glowing, purple outline was barely visible. "Now," she said. "While she's distracted."

They jumped together, clearing the distance easily and landing on either side of her, just as the outline disappeared. Chantal's face lost its impassive glaze, and instead she just looked annoyed.

As the duo moved in, each grabbing for an arm, Chantal reacted. In a blur, she body slammed Ladybug, who was knocked off her feet, but recovered with a graceful flip.

"Hawk Moth is getting tired of this," she said.

"Hey, me too," Cat Noir said.

She stalked toward Ladybug, scowling. "I need those earrings. Let's just get this over with, Marinette."

Ladybug wrinkled her nose at the use of her civilian name, but stood her ground, spinning the yoyo like a shield. Cat Noir ran forward and brought his baton down hard on the victim's head, only to find that she'd already jumped. Instead, he dented the roof, and Chantal landed behind Ladybug, grabbing her, and pinning her arms to her side, only to get flipped over a second later.

The talk with Hawk Moth had made Chantal much more aggressive. Instead of falling back and regrouping, she sprang back toward them as soon as she had righted herself, her straight hair splayed across her face. Well, if she was going to chase them, Ladybug was going to use it to their advantage.

"You're right," she said. "It's time to end this." She turned and swung away, hoping Cat Noir would be able to slow Chantal down. There would be no way to outrun her otherwise. She didn't look behind her to find out.

Five swings. It only took her five swings to find what she was looking for, a tall building that was still under construction. Hopefully, an abandoned floor would be enclosed enough. She sized up the building, trying to decide which window to break, when there was a heavy thud behind her, and she jumped and spun to find her partner.

"How'd you outrun her?"

"I didn't," he said. "It was great. You should have seen it, My Lady." He spun his baton, tossed it and caught it, just to show off, she was sure. "She was so focused on you that she didn't see me sneak up behind her. Knocked her right into a dumpster! Two points!" He mimed shooting a basketball and looked far too pleased with himself. "So before she catches up, what's the plan?"

"Too late," she said. Chantal jumped into view three buildings away and was closing the distance fast. "Break one of those windows."

There was a tinkle of glass as his baton smashed through the highest one, easily ten stories above them. Ladybug watched as Chantal landed on the other end of their roof, then felt her stomach drop as she suddenly lurched up. Cat Noir had grabbed her around the middle and shot them through the narrow window as easily as she could have threaded a needle.

A quick scan of the room told her that her good luck was finally paying off. The whole story was abandoned, expect for a few power tools and the smell of sawdust. The floor was mostly open, with slabs of sheetrock sectioning off areas here and there. There was a large hole in the floor at the opposite corner of the room, where she assumed the stairs were, and there were several concrete columns leading up to a high ceiling, though she wasn't sure if those were there for support or decoration. Probably better to leave them intact, just in case. A line of windows all around the floor let in shafts of sunlight. The duo took their positions on either side of the broken window, hoping to catch Chantal as she followed them in.

Seconds ticked by slowly, and just when Ladybug started to think that the jump had been too high for her, the unbroken window on her other side shattered. Ladybug turned just in time to see Chantal land among the shards before she shot forward again, knocking the yoyo out of her way. Ladybug rolled and tried to kick the woman's feet out from under her, vaguely aware that Cat Noir was moving to flank her. She missed, and rolled too far, smacking into one of the columns with her hip. She winced and rolled behind it, hoping to buy herself some time.

Cat Noir bought her some instead, asking Chantal if she was feeling claw-straphobic yet, or if she'd at yeast consider abandoning her half-baked plan. He kept he akuma victim distracted with multiple swings from the baton, maneuvering her into the center of the room, where he finally backed her into a column.

"My Lady, do you think it's about time we wrapped this up?" Chantal tried to dodge to the side, but he kept her pinned up against the column.

Wrap? Why a wrapping pun?

Oh!

She threw her yoyo, which wrapped around Chantal several times and securely pinned her to the column. Ladybug held the end of the line tight and watched as the woman struggled uselessly. There was no escape. They'd won. Only... she didn't feel relieved. What if no one forgot? What if she had to live with the reveal forever?

"Well," Cat Noir said. "That was anticlimactic." He frowned, and his cat ears pressed flat against his head. Were they worrying about the same thing?

"That was a wasted opportunity, Kitten. I'm disappointed." He cocked his head, but kept his eyes on Chantal. "Didn't you mean anti-claw-mactic?"

A small smile ghosted over his face. "Shall we finish this, My Lady?" Chantal struggled harder, but it didn't do her any good.

"It's in her pocket," Ladybug said. "A piece of paper."

Cat Noir stalked forward, tail swishing, as Chantal wiggled ferociously, and Ladybug felt the tug on the line she was holding. She wanted to tell her that fighting against magical weapons wouldn't help her, but she kept her mouth shut. Instead, she wondered if she should tell Cat Noir what might happen to his memories. This was her last chance.

He deserved to know. He'd been honest with her. She tried to push away the guilt over rejecting him. She'd told him not to apologize for his feelings. She shouldn't apologize for hers.

He was only a few steps away. The akuma victim had stopped struggling, instead slipping her fingers into her pocket to touch the paper and then squeezing her eyes shut in concentration. Cat Noir reached out. It was too late to tell him. Her indecision made the decision for her.

Chantal started to fuzz. It was plainly visible around her face and the outline of her body. Her image became blurry, then turned as dark as her clothing, then dissolved. Ladybug was jerked backward as slack suddenly appeared in the line. The cloud of shadow that had been a person floated toward Cat Noir, who jumped, then backed up into a defensive stance. Chantal reformed only inches away from where she had been, but far enough that she was free of the yoyo, which was helpfully trapping only the column. Chantal gasped and took her fingers out of her pockets. Her forehead was shiny with sweat, and she had to rest her hands on her knees to hold herself up as she caught her breath.

Ladybug and Cat Noir stared at her. He'd moved in front of his partner, baton up. Ladybug wondered if he was protective of her like this on purpose or if it was a reflex by now. How had she ever believed he wasn't serious?

She rubbed her hip absently. It was probably going to bruise.

"It looks like she's got a secret weapon," Cat Noir said.

His voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "I don't think that can be counted as a pun." She started to reel her yoyo back in. She needed to be ready. It sounded like Chantal's breathing was already starting to even out. "That's literally a secret weapon. You'll have to think of a new one."

"Fine. Litter-ally." He quickly glanced away from Chantal to see her reaction to the joke. "Stop glaring at me! You told me to."

Chantal used the momentary distraction to lunge forward, targeting Cat Noir this time.

They split off in opposite directions, both knowing their best bet would be to catch her in between them.

"So, what was your boyfriend's secret?" Cat Noir tried again. "What if we could help you instead of fight you?"

"Nothing," Chantal said. "This was my fault." Was she implying that she'd gotten herself akumatized? Well, that was a new one. Anyway, now was probably their best bet for Lucky Charm. Ladybug stopped spinning her yoyo to summon it and took a step forward. Chantal seemed to realize her time was running out. Before Ladybug could say anything, their target ran straight toward Cat Noir, then feinted to the right. When he went to defend that side, she wasn't there. Instead, she wrapped one hand around his bare neck. Cat Noir went rigid, his eyes blank.

"No!" Ladybug yelled. The yoyo moved almost on its own, wrapping itself securely around him and pulling him away. She caught him before he fell to the floor. Her heartbeat pounded in her throat.

"That felt weird." He rubbed his neck, but he didn't seem hurt.

Not him, too. Please.

When they looked back at Chantal, her normally calm face had cracked into an ecstatic grin. She's going to tell everyone! She bolted for the edge of the large room, but instead of heading toward a window, she weaved her way around the sheetrock walls to the corner with the large stairway hole. She'll tell everyone, and Cat Noir will be in danger!

Ladybug hadn't even realized she was chasing the woman. She just suddenly felt her hair whipping out behind her, her quick breathing, her yoyo in her hand. Not my partner! Cat Noir tagged along beside her, quiet for once. Chantal jumped into the hole seconds before them.

What if Hawk Moth targets him next? What if criminals target his family? What's his family like? What if he's forced to leave Paris?

Chantal took the stairs whole flights at a time. With each level, they fell a little bit farther behind, and Ladybug's hip hurt a little bit more. At every floor, she expected the akuma to go for a window, but they must have been halfway down the building before they heard yelling and glass smashing. They jumped the last five steps and landed on the floor in a roll, totally in sync. There were workers here, putting in carpet. They'd fled toward the edges of the room, and several pointed out the wide, broken window, in case the heroes couldn't figure out where the akuma had gone.

"Thank you!" Cat Noir said. He even smiled at waved at them as they passed. Ladybug didn't even spare them a glance, instead pointing out to her almost-panicking self that Cat Noir was too kind to deserve what Chantal was planning on doing to him. Ladybug could still see her on a roof outside. They still had time.

They dove through the window, which was big enough that they could both go through at once. They landed on a coffee shop, judging by the smell. Cat Noir jumped toward the woman immediately, and Ladybug jogged to keep up. Her adrenaline wasn't enough to overcome the pain at her side. She thought she heard Chantal laughing ahead of them.

"I really am helping you!" she said. She had just jumped onto a chimney, and was crouching to jump again.

"No, thank you!" Cat Noir shouted, as he scrambled to catch up to her. "I wanted to tell her myself!"

Ladybug was struggling to keep up. Her hip flared in pain every time she moved quickly, but she was close enough to listen with growing terror.

Instead of leaping toward safety, Chantal landed only a short distance away and glanced over her shoulder at Cat Noir. "You promise?" She sounded skeptical. Her eyes narrowed as he took a few more steps toward her. He was almost close enough to touch her.

He reached out a clawed hand. "Of cour-"

"NO! NO! NO!" With a final burst of speed, Ladybug landed next to them with an ungraceful thud. Chantal scowled and took off.

"What was that? I almost had her!"

She barely heard her partner, too focused on the fact that- "No! She's getting away again!" And with Cat Noir's identity. Who is he? His real name was too important to reveal, even to her. He was always protecting her. She had to protect him from this.

Chantal dodged around a corner, but by the time they'd reached the spot, she was gone. Ladybug searched the surrounding rooftops frantically, but she'd disappeared.

"I don't see her," Cat Noir said. His ears swiveled, but didn't give him any clues.

I'm not letting her get away with his name! What if cleansing the akuma doesn't fix this?!

Ladybug swung, pushed herself, searched, swung again, chased shadows, only to realize she hadn't seen the akuma, then took off in another direction, again and again and again. She refused to believe the woman had gotten away. Fixing things was her job. She had to fix this. Her frenzied chasing didn't stop her from panicking.

Cat Noir stayed right behind her, trying to get to her to slow down.

"My Lady, stop! Wait for me!"

She only stopped when she paused to find a good anchor, but she stayed an extra few seconds to catch her breath. It gave Cat Noir enough time to land softly next to her and catch her by the shoulder. He was breathing hard, too.

"It's too late," he said. "She got away."

Ladybug shook her head and raised the yoyo. Cat Noir put his hand over hers and gently pushed it down. She felt his fingers linger on hers, but she didn't look away from the horizon. The sun was lower than she expected. They'd been at this the better part of the afternoon. Would Chantal's announcement show up on her yoyo?

"I'm going to tell you who I am now," he said.

"I still don't think it's a good idea."

When she finally looked at him, he was crossing his arms. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

Ladybug didn't answer, though she knew her one good reason.

"I'd rather you hear it from me," he said gently.

"No."

"Hey, I had to find out yours through that announcement."

He wasn't going to let it go unless she told him, was he? "If I hear it from you, I'll probably remember it. If I hear it from her-" She cringed as she heard the words coming out of her mouth. Would he still help her if he knew he might forget? "When I cleanse that akuma, there's a chance I'll forget who you are."

"Good. I don't want you to forget."

"Well, I do!" But will he still help me?

"It's my identity," he said. "It should be my choice!"

It was sound logic, difficult to argue with. But she knew he was just saying it because of his feelings for her. She couldn't let that change her answer. He'd be in serious danger. So she stood firm and shook her head. "NO."

"This is stupid! Just let me tell you!"

"The mission is more important than us. Stop being selfish!"

"Me?!" His tone made it clear who he thought the selfish one was. "It's just my name. What are you so afraid of?"

"Everyone I care about is in danger! I want at least you to be safe!"

"Maybe I don't care about my safety!"

She could feel the pinpricks of tears forming at the corners of her eyes. He didn't really mean that, did he? He had to stay safe. "One of us has to care."

"I'd rather be with you! Please." He took a step closer and grabbed her hand, and she couldn't find a reason to pull away. "Please, let me tell you." He was almost whispering.

"I don't want to know who you are."

He moved in so close to her that their toes were almost touching, and he leaned his face towards hers. "Yes, you do." Her stomach flipped uncomfortably.

"Cat Noir," she said, finally pulling away. "You know I like someone else." She hadn't wanted to come right out and say it like that. She watched his reaction carefully, but didn't see any hurt flash across his face. Why not? "I just want everything to go back to normal when this is over." She swallowed hard. She was not going to cry in front of him.

"Well, I don't."

He wasn't going to help her. Home was somewhere behind her, so she turned and swung off, ignoring his calls for her. Her throat hurt from holding back her sobs, but she wouldn't let herself cry. So what if he didn't want to help her this time? She'd had to fight without him a bunch of times. This wasn't so bad. So what if he didn't care about his safety? She'd just have to protect him this time instead. So what if he knew who she was, or that their easy friendship had probably been damaged by his confession? So what if she knew she was hurting him? These weren't good reasons to cry.

The wind tore at her face and pigtails, and the cold air traced along the tracks her tears made down her cheeks, chilling them. As soon as she landed on her balcony, she detransformed and scrubbed at her eyes.

Tikki tried comforting her, but Marinette slipped through the skylight, flopped onto her bed, and completely ignored her kwami. This one was officially her least favorite akuma ever. She laid on her stomach for a while, staring at nothing, when she finally decided she should at least text Alya. She'd need to know to not to try texting the yoyo.

Message sent, she buried her face in her pillow. She was exhausted from all the useless running, and her hip still hurt besides. They were going to have to think of another tactic, but Marinette was having trouble focusing.

She wasn't sure how much time had gone by when she pulled her phone out again. Alya hadn't texted her back. Or had she simply missed the notification? Checking the messages, she realized it had been almost an hour, and Alya had been completely silent.

Something wasn't right. Marinette called. The phone rang and rang and rang, until it finally went to voicemail. Alya had said her battery was full. She couldn't have been out of cell range for over an hour. Something definitely wasn't right. A quick call to Alya's house revealed that her family didn't know where she was either.

Her last resort was to transform. Tikki had curled up with a cookie in a pile of sweaters and fallen asleep. Marinette was too worried to feel bad about waking her up. Ladybug stood in the middle of the pink bedroom, toes curling in anxiety. Alya hadn't called or texted. She couldn't even find her friend with the yoyo's tracking ability. She wasn't- Chantal hadn't-

Ladybug dizzily released the transformation.

"What's wrong?" Tikki asked. She still looked sleepy. Her eyelids drooped.

Marinette pulled out her phone with shaking fingers, scrolling through her recent texts until she found the one that simply said, "You're welcome."

Marinette – 4:06 – Where. Is. Alya.

Tikki read over the message and gasped.

Chantal – 4:06 – It's a secret.

Author's note: Dun dun dun! Aren't you glad I didn't drop this cliffhanger on you and then disappear for a month? (Sorry about that, by the way. I blame NaNo, real life stuff, and this stupid chapter. It was a serious pain in the neck to write. And longer than most of the others.) We should be back to a regular update schedule now.

I have to share a completely unrelated story. So once one of my younger siblings was watching a show in another room, and I went, hey, that sounds like Adrien's voice. Went in to find a character that looked NOTHING like Adrien. Different hair, different build, different intonation, different artistic design. But he still sounded like Adrien. A quick trip to Google told me that it was the same voice actor. Even though he looked completely different, I could still identify him by his voice. What's your excuse, Marinette? :p