Twenty-One: Party Doll

"Lucky Charm!" I cried.

The sky above me burst into brilliant shades of red and white light, and a tube of toothpaste decked out in Ladybug spots dropped into my hands. Chat Noir was standing next to me, and put a claw tip to his chin. "Well," he teased, "I'm all in for dental hygiene. Guess we'll be brushing away this plaque."

I groaned as I rolled my eyes. "Not one of your better ones, Chat."

He smiled. "I'm in a hurry," he said, shrugging.

"Hot date?" I smiled, knowing that he was likely chomping at the bit to get to the Bakery to meet Marinette. Then I frowned, remembering that I had to go to that stupid party Alya was dragging me to.

"No, just a thing," he said somewhat coyly. "Shall we, Milady?"

Curiosity piqued, I genuinely wondered what Chat was going to do. "What kind of thing?" I asked as I followed him off the ledge we were on and toward the akuma.

Chat dropped onto an edge, perched, and turned to me, his tail animating his response. "A thing," he smiled again. "Why? Are you wanting to join me?"

"I wish," I said as I dropped over the second ledge and lowered myself down on the yo-yo. "I have a 'thing' too tonight, though I don't really want to be there."

"I hear ya," Chat said as he landed in a crouch beside me. "We could string this out a bit..." he suggested, his masked eyes dancing with merriment.

"No, Chat," I sighed, "as much as I would appreciate that. People are counting on me."

"What else is new," he chuckled as he leapt away to distract the Dentist-turned-akuma long enough for me to put together my Lucky Charm plan. I knew my focus wasn't where it needed to be when I still hadn't come up with anything as the first dot of my earrings chirped to oblivion.

"Chat," I called out, feeling the first vestige of frustration. "I could use a paw over here."

He smoothly vaulted over the akuma, narrowly avoiding the tendrils of floss it had been using to wrap up parts of Paris and landed in a crouch beside me. "Milady?" he said, concern in his masked eyes.

"I'm having trouble tonight," I said. "Nothing is coming up for me."

Chat's expression went to full-on worry. "Okay, just take a moment and breath, LB. Close your eyes-" he smacked away some tendrils of floss with his baton as I complied, "and just focus on your breathing."

I did, but felt myself starting to breath faster. It had been years since I'd panicked, but for some reason my pulse was quickening. Damn it, I thought. This is the last thing I need.

Chat seemed to sense my hyperventilating and I heard the soft murmur of fabric a moment before his arms picked me up and we were airborne. I held tight and opened my eyes when I felt us land a few moments later – just as my earrings chirped again.

"Three dots," Chat said quietly, as he continued to hold me.

"We've got to get back-"

"We have time," Chat said calmly, and damn if he didn't start purring.

"Chat! We don't have-"

"Shush," he said, and he hugged me a bit more. "Close your eyes. Focus on the sound."

I wanted to protest a bit more, but did as he asked, listening to the rumbling emanating from deep within his chest. One rumble led to the next, then the next, and I felt my universe start to re-order. Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and turned to him, fully back in control. "How did you know?" I asked as he released me.

"I'm a cat," he smiled. "We specialize in making people feel better. Did it work?"

"Yes," I said as I looked over his shoulder and multiple things started to light up around the akuma. I turned to him and saw his tail light up, too. "And I need your-"

"Of course you do," he said, rolling his eyes as he unbuckled his belt tail.

We made short work of the akuma and regrouped on a nearby rooftop after sending the dentist on his way and cleaning up with the Miraculous Cure. I was down to my final dot as I handed Chat back his tail. "Thank you," I said.

"I'll always have your beautiful back, Milady," he grinned slyly, narrowly avoiding my requisite yo-yo to the head. "But, alas, I need to scat," he added as his ring chirped and a second pad disappeared. "I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to whenever we grow up enough that we don't have to worry about this five-minute timer."

"Maybe it's when we turn twenty-one," I said idly before realizing I'd revealed something.

"One can hope," Chat smiled as he leapt away. "Cats hate training wheels..."

"As do bugs," I laughed as I lowered myself into a nearby alley and de-transformed, then fished a cookie out of my purse for Tikki. "We're gonna be late," I complained. "Do you think Alya will hate me for life if I don't go?"

"No, but you could use the break, Marinette," my constant companion chimed at me. "You've run yourself ragged this semester."

I sighed. "I'll need to lean on Ladybug to get there quickly," I said. "Do you mind?"

"No," she laughed as she polished off her macaroon.

Not long after, I descended on my yo-yo into a side alley by the club hosting the party that evening and dropped my transformation once more. I stepped out onto the sidewalk and stared at the awning over the main entrance and dithered; I really, really, really didn't want to go to this party. Two years into my college experience, I'd managed to avoid most of these alcohol-infused events, but I'd promised Alya I'd be at this one despite the mountain of work waiting for me back home. Supporting Nino's budding music career took precedence, of course, but I also felt a little exposed since my normal plus one wouldn't be able to attend.

Thoughts of Chat made me smile, for a part of me could easily see him at a party such as this. For a fraction of a second, I thought about calling him to beg him to attend, but we'd been amazingly careful with our relationship and now, five years in, had yet to appear as a couple even on the Ladyblog. It was equally as hard for me to fathom I'd managed to keep from telling him I was Ladybug.

Sighing, I waited for a break in the traffic to dart across the street and up the steps to the club. The inside was packed with students, many of whom I didn't know; a few familiar faces smiled at me, mostly from my days at Lycée or Dupont, but that was the extent of it. Pushing through the crowd, I ultimately found my best friend off to the side with a good view of her fiancé on the small raised dais.

"Hey girl," Alya said, leaning to my ear to be heard over the noise. "Alone?" she asked as she hugged me.

"Yeah," I said. "My boyfriend couldn't make it."

Alya snorted. "I'm started to doubt you have one, Mari," she laughed. "No one has ever seen him."

"He's kind of high profile," I smiled. "He prefers to keep us in the shadows."

She rolled her eyes. "Right," she laughed again.

"It's true!" I said defensively, feeling my face heat up slightly.

"I believe you," she said as her eyes flipped to something over my shoulder. "But that doesn't mean you can't have some fun tonight."

"Alya," I said, recognizing that gleam in her eye. "Look-"

"Adrien!" Alya cried, waving frantically.

Trying hard not to smack my best friend, I turned to see the supermodel work his way through the crowd. Despite how easily he handled people as he was recognized, I could tell he was not comfortable being at the party, either.

"Hey Princ—Marinette," Adrien said as he leaned down and gave me the traditional French air kiss. "Alya! How's that fiancé of yours doing?"

Whatever Alya said was lost, for I was nearly certain Adrien had been on the cusp of calling me Princess. But given the noise at the party, I couldn't be sure. I caught Adrien's attention as he was talking with Alya and saw him arch an eyebrow at my look.

Princess? I thought again. Only Chat calls me-

"Good party?" he asked, and I realized Alya had vanished. "I just got here, had a nasty photo shoot this afternoon."

"I don't know," I replied, trying to talk over the music. "I've only been here a short while, too," I added as I looked up at Nino. "And as much as I love Nino, parties just aren't my thing."

"Me either," he concurred. He held my eyes, and for a moment, I thought he was going to say something else; I found myself lost in those emerald eyes of his, which I was suddenly realizing were nearly the same color at Chat's. Adrien blinked and turned back toward Nino, but in a smooth movement, he gently put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close.

I knew I should have felt a bit of shock at this unusual intimacy from my longtime friend, and yet, I didn't; I instead found myself leaning into him, almost as if it was something I had done regularly. It was a comforting move, almost as if he'd sensed I wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment. Waves of comfort washed over me, and for the first time since I'd arrived, I started to relax.

It didn't last, of course, for Alya reappeared with two red cups for us. Her expression was wicked, as if getting the two of us together had been part of her master plan from the beginning. Adrien quickly dropped his arm as she handed us the cups.

"Chloe is here," Alya said over the din.

"I thought she was in New York?" Adrien asked as he started to scan the room.

"She's visiting her dad," Alya said. "It must not be going well, though," she added. "She's already three sheets to the wind, and that bottle of Dom Perignon she's swigging from now won't improve her prospects much." Alya frowned a bit and finished with: "In the twenty minutes she's been here, she's managed to insult just about everyone."

I heard Adrien groan, nearly in time with my own. Like me, he had to have come to the same conclusion: an upset Chloe nearly always seemed to spawn an akuma. It felt wise for me to sneak out and return as Ladybug, just in case. I started to fumble with my purse for my phone.

"Is it that late?" I heard Adrien say. "I really need to go."

"You just got here!" Alya cried before her eyes turned to me and then down to the phone I was clutching in my hands. "Let me guess. You're leaving, too?"

"Maman just texted," I said. "They have a big order at the Bakery and need my help."

"Seriously?" Alya started, but Adrien had already disappeared into the crowd.

As my best friend searched for him in vain, I took the opportunity to dash toward a door just beside where we'd been standing. Quickly closing it behind me, I found I was on the staircase to the balcony that ringed the event space. I was alone, so I called for Tikki and was fully transformed by the time I reached the velvet rimmed railing. Peering over the edge, I started to search for the blonde head of Chloe a fraction of a second before Chat dropped out of the ceiling and into a crouch beside me.

"Great minds?" I laughed as he similarly scanned the crowd below. "I heard Chloe was back in town."

"You must have picked up on my deepest desire to see you this evening, Milady," Chat said with a smile. "But yes, Chloe is down there. Somewhere."

"I wonder-" I started, but didn't finish.

A loud crash issued from the small table that had been serving drinks and we both turned toward it. Chloe had upended it with one hand, and the bartender was standing there, soaked by whatever had been on the counter at the time. Chat's feline ears had pivoted and I could see he was able to hear whatever insults Chloe appeared to be hurling at the bartender.

"Uh…" Chat said. "Maybe we should have an intervention?"

"Good idea," I agreed, but before we could hurdle the balcony, a second crash issued from the far side of the room, followed by the telltale requisite screaming.

I locked eyes with Chat. Our akuma had appeared.

After rescuing the undergrad that had come under the spell of Hawkmoth and ensuring he was safely on the way home, we loaded a passed-out Chloe into a second taxi headed toward Le Grand Hotel. She looked so peaceful in repose, it was hard to imagine she'd been the key ingredient in far more akumas than I cared to count.

My earrings were chirping as I turned to Chat and saw his ring had lost its third pad. "And here I was hoping we'd be able to spend more time together this evening," he grinned his Chesire grin at me.

"I thought you already had a girlfriend," I teased.

"I do," Chat replied as he extended the baton and leaned on it with a dreamy expression. "I'm sad to say, my days of flirting with you are over, Milady."

"I never thought I'd see the day," I said, chuckling.

"And what would that be?" Chat was now leaning an elbow on the top of his baton, chin in hand.

"You. Giving up on me," I said good naturedly as I readied my yo-yo.

Chat surprised me and leaned his baton toward me, managing to plant a kiss on my exposed cheek. "How will you ever survive?" he teased.

"Oh, I suspect I'll find a way…" I laughed as I shot my yo-yo out into the night and left my bemused kitty behind.

I had just enough time to get to an alleyway a few blocks from the Bakery before dropping my transformation and feeding Tikki my last macaroon. I walked the final distance under the streetlights, and thinking of something Chat had once told me, I chanced to look up at one only to see my wildly grinning kitty perched on the crossarm.

"How long have you been following me?" I asked, a bit concerned that he might have caught me transforming.

"I just got here," he laughed as he swung around the pole and slid down, landing gently next to me. "Ladybug and I had to break up a party crasher a few blocks from here, so I thought I'd swing by and see how your evening had gone."

"Better than yours," I said. "I was at a party myself, but didn't want to be there," I said honestly. "I told a tiny white lie to my friends to get out of it."

I could see his wide masked emerald eyes were dancing. "Really, Purrincess," he said with mock horror. "Clearly this black cat has been rubbing off on you."

"Maybe," I said as I hooked an arm through his. "Come on, let's see if we can rustle up something to eat."

"Meowonderful," he said as he extended his baton into a walking cane and elegantly escorted me home. "Akumas always make me hungry."

"I know," I smiled. As they do for me, too.