#12. Phone thief

Ladybug didn't seem bothered by the fact that Master Fu apparently decided to talk to the kwamis without their presence. Marinette found it a little bit rude though.

'Don't worry. They aren't talking about you, sweetie,' the heroine said as if reading her mind. 'Tikki now can finally say all the bad stuff she's been bottling up since I showed up.'

'She does not!' Marinette protested. 'She doesn't act like that!'

'Sure, she does. Haven't you noticed? All the stink eyes I've been getting. Plagg would love it.'

'You and Plagg are close then?' Marinette wanted to ask earlier. The brief meeting with Chat Noir's kwami left her curious and Tikki's comment only spurred her curiosity further.

'We get along just fine,' future Ladybug said evasively.

'So… you know who Chat Noir is?'

There's a deep sigh. 'Not at the moment, no.'

'Oh.'

This seemed to exhaust Ladybug's inclination to talk, as she didn't elaborate further. She plopped herself on the mat and closed her eyes. From what Marinette gathered, she was tired most of the time. It probably had to do with the transformation thing. Maybe Master Fu would provide them with some answers.

The girl took out her phone to kill some time. First she checked for messages from Penny. Jagged and his assistant were supposed to review her designs for the upcoming concert. Marinette was expecting their instructions on final adjustments any day now, seeing how the event was only four days away. But maybe they just chose someone else. It would be weird though, Penny texted her earlier that they loved the clothes and had only some minor suggestions. Marinette made a mental note to text Mlle Rolling later.

She raised her eyes from her device only to notice that Ladybug was also busying herself with a smartphone. Yet as far as Marinette knew she hadn't brought anything with her when she crossed the mirror.

'You lucky-charmed a phone?' She asked glimpsing at the item.

'No,' Ladybug flicked the screen blockade to shut the device, but Marinette managed to see the picture - a very familiar blond model and his best friend posing for a selfie.

'Hey, that's Adrien's!' She exclaimed. 'How did you get that?!'

'Same way as you, I imagine,' Ladybug smirked. She lit the screen again and tried different patterns for the lock. Now that Marinette saw the device, she stopped hiding with what she was doing.

'You need to give it back! Now!' the girl demanded trying to take over the phone.

'Relax, sweetie. Sunshine child doesn't need it now. He's at one of those photoshoots at our park.' She rolled to the side to keep out of Marinette's range. 'God only knows why they need so many pictures of the same outfit on the same model in the same park.'

'Why did you even take it?'

'Like I said, I don't trust him,' Ladybug tried pattern after pattern. 'I wanted to check what is he up to.'

'You won't find Hawkmoth's number in there, you know,' Marinette huffed.

The device lit up after Ladybug drew the shape of a handwritten "L".

'Interesting choice,' she hummed.

To Marinette's irritation she went straight for connections and text messages, but unsurprisingly there were no indications of Adrien's engagement in magical terrorism activity, nor his familiarity with any villains whatsoever, that is if one didn't count Chloe. There was however a disturbing number of emails in his inbox from someone named Wayhem.

Disappointed with Adrien's correspondence Ladybug started browsing through his saved files. Marinette gave up on taking the phone away from her. She was now trying to peek but without being obvious. Ladybug wasn't exactly hiding the screen, but she didn't offer better access for the girl either.

There was nothing of interest for the older girl in the photos folder. A few pictures of Adrien's mom, and a lot more of his friends from school. The heroine stiffened, when she discovered a "HM" folder, which as far as Marinette could see, contained the only existing video footage of Hawkmoth himself - the creepy giant butterfly head from the first akuma battle and Scarlet Moth from Prime Queen's broadcast during the Heroes' Day.

'Hmmm,' Ladybug murmured and continued to scroll through folders.

Marinette wiggled anxiously. Why would Adrien have those saved to his phone?

The older girl sat up, when she found another folder full of videos. This one was tagged "LB" and contained more footage, this time of the heroes, mostly Ladybug. These were from battles and interviews.

Even Marinette had to admit that this looked suspicious. Was Ladybug right in her surmise? Was Adrien collecting footage for Hawkmoth, or maybe tracking down his opponents?

At that moment Ladybug stifled a giggle. Then she chuckled out loud. Marinette lost track of what the heroine had been browsing and now she couldn't see the screen at all. Ladybug's shoulders slowly started to shake until a very unladylike snort escaped her. As far as Marinette could determine she was opening folder after folder and what she found must have been extremely amusing.

Marinette felt she was going to explode. 'What's so funny?' she asked, trying to keep her voice casual.

Ladybug turned to give her access to the screen. There were tears in her eyes and she did her best not to laugh out loud. She scrolled and opened files at random. And with each file Ladybug's smirk grew wider while Marinette's eyes grew larger.

Fanart. Tons of it. Of Ladybug, sometimes in Chat Noir's company. A considerable amount of LadyNoir drawings, edits and comics. Fanfiction saved to the phone memory.

The heroine stopped at a particularly cheesy portrait of Ladybug surrounded by roses and little bugs. It had an "inspirational poem" added on the side.

"Ladybugs are red

Violets are blue

My heart belongs

Only to you"

'Awwwww,' she cooed, while Marinette stared dumbfounded at the phone screen. 'He's a fan!'


Author's Note: So I'm wondering now how many of you will actually read fanfiction instead of getting excited/salty over the new episode? I hope at least some people will check this update :D

As always I ask you to leave a review. Your opinions mean the world to me and motivate me to write more.

Tomorrow another interesting prompt – Akumanette. See you soon!