Something had happened again. Marinette knew it by just looking at Adrien and Félix. It wasn't as severely noticeable as it had been the previous year when she hadn't seen Félix for an entire month, but something was still off. Since she still didn't know what had actually happened on Halloween back then, she just guessed that the memories of whatever that had been had darkened the mood.
Luckily it only lasted until the following Friday, when Alya entered the classroom and slapped five tickets on the desk.
"Got 'em!" She declared victoriously.
"Got what?" Adrien asked as he turned around in his seat.
"The zoo tickets for tomorrow! Papa said that he can give us a short tour during his lunch break and then he can show us the new panther when it's feeding time!"
Marinette grinned when she watched Adrien's eyes light up immediately. "So that's why you kept asking if Félix and I are free on Saturday!"
"Yep! And if your dad dares to throw in a last-minute photoshoot, I'm gonna walk through your fancy front door and punch him in the face!"
"Alya!" Marinette exclaimed, though she couldn't keep the grin off her face at the mental image of her best friend punching Gabriel Agreste.
"I'd gladly open the door for you in that case," Félix commented with a small grin of his own as he leaned on Adrien's desk. He often lingered around at the front before class started, especially over the last few days.
"See Mari? Félix gets it," Alya said and held out her fist to Félix. He bumped it after a small hesitation.
"How much is a ticket?" Nino meanwhile asked as he looked at the tickets on Alya's desk.
"It's ten Euros with our student discount," she said. "I tried to get free admission since Papa works there, but no chance. But at least we don't have to pay the full price, so we save three Euros each."
"Sweet!" Nino said and rummaged around in his bag. "Damn, I only have five. Can I give you the other five tomorrow?"
"Sure," Alya said with a grin while simultaneously accepting a ten euro note from Marinette. She only had money with her at all because Alya had sent her a text that morning—a text that had woken her up—telling her about the tickets.
"Why do you have the tickets already by the way? Couldn't we just buy them at the zoo tomorrow?" Adrien then asked.
"Oh, my sweet summer child," Alya chuckled. "If you want to wait in line for half an hour then be my guest. Just thought I'd save us the trouble."
"A good idea," Félix chimed in. "I loathe waiting in line."
"Yeah, rub your prestige in our faces," Marinette deadpanned with an eyeroll but couldn't quite keep the grin off her face.
"Can we pay for the tickets tomorrow too? Father doesn't like us carrying cash around," Adrien said awkwardly. Alya waved it off.
"It's fine! Just be sure to actually show up tomorrow. No excuses!"
"Alright, operation Adrinette is starting now!" Alya declared while Marinette squawked indignantly.
"Alya!" She protested while her mother chuckled in the background.
Traitor!
"What? This is the perfect opportunity, girl! Just walking through the zoo, holding hands, looking at all the animals. Don't worry; Félix, Nino and I will find a way to ditch you early on." Alya winked in a way that was probably meant to be encouraging, but Marinette only buried her head in her arms on the table.
"Alya!" She said again, this time muffled and accompanied by a whine. She started to regret offering her place as a meetup point rather than suggesting the zoo itself. Alya had shown up one full hour too early, thrown Marinette out of bed—that was the second day in a row where she had been woken up because of her friend—and now sat at the breakfast table with her. It would still be fifteen minutes until the others were supposed to arrive.
"I'm sure all of you will have a great day. Just remember the last time you were at the zoo with Adrien and Félix, sweetie. It was a lot of fun, wasn't it?" Her mother said.
Marinette lifted her head and sighed. Yes, the last zoo visit had been a ton of fun, but that was an entire year before she had realised that she had a crush on Adrien! It would be much different this time.
Despite how silly it was, her brain had come up with several worst-case scenarios where Adrien would end up hating her. One of said scenarios had even included that he got eaten by a snow leopard because he had wanted to cuddle it.
"And just wait for his face when he sees you! You look damn fine, girl!" Alya winked at her again, which prompted the same reaction from Marinette that it did a minute ago.
Right, Alya had convinced her into wearing the black jacket she had been practicing on over the last couple of weeks. She had finished said jacket—a form-fitting sleek piece with a diagonal zipper—only the previous evening. It was the best jacket she had ever made, in her opinion, and there was nothing wrong with wearing it.
At least that's what she had thought until Alya had convinced her to wear skinny grey jeans and black boots instead of the slightly old—they were going to the zoo after all—but still good-enough looking blue jeans and comfortable sneakers to it. Marinette had also not been allowed to wear her hair in pigtails like she always did these days. While, yes, the outfit looked better when she had her hair down, it also made the change very obvious and she was worried that it would look very intentional. She didn't want Adrien to get the wrong idea and embarrass herself. Well, it wasn't really the wrong idea per se, but she still planned this outing to not be a date!
There was a knock on the door and Marinette barely had time to compose herself as her mother let in their guests. Plural. As in, the twins had arrived a full thirteen minutes too early! She should have known this was going to happen.
"Good morning!" Adrien said, chipper as ever. She was sure that if she'd turn around to look at him, she'd see him bouncing on the spot in excitement.
"You guys are early," Alya said with a grin, not looking the least bit disappointed.
"Hypocrite," Marinette coughed and her friend threw a piece of croissant at her.
"So are you," Félix stated.
"She had the audacity to throw me out of bed!"
Marinette finally turned around to the twins who had just taken off their shoes and were hanging up their coats. Her breath caught in her throat when her eyes fell on Adrien. With the last two months of seeing him exclusively in designer clothes at school—apparently his father insisted on it—she had almost forgotten how he looked like in his regular clothes. And with regular clothes she meant the seemingly bottomless collection of pun shirts—especially cat pun shirts—he owned. Today's shirt was navy and proclaimed in white letters: meowgical, ameowzing, meowvelous, meowgnificient. And the look wouldn't be complete without hopelessly ruffled hair.
Meowgical, ameowzing, meowvelous and meowgnificient indeed.
She honestly preferred this Adrien over the perfect model image he had to parade around all the time.
"That's cruel, Alya," Adrien said and it took Marinette a moment to realize he was referring to her comment of being thrown out of bed.
"All's fair in love and war," her traitorous friend said—it seemed to be her life philosophy at this point right next to Majestia's slogan—and sipped her coffee with the calm of a saint. Since the L-word had been mentioned, Marinette desperately needed to change the topic.
"Let me guess, you snuck out?" She said, nodding towards Adrien's outfit. After all, there was no way that Gabriel Agreste would let him leave the house looking like that.
"Out the window!" Adrien added with a gleeful smirk.
"The window?" Her mother suddenly exclaimed in disbelief, making Adrien flinch. "It's almost freezing at night and your room is on the first floor! You'll break your necks one of these days! Next time, you sneak out of the front door or at least a ground floor window like normal people!"
It was almost comical to see the twins get encouraged by her to sneak out of their house by her mother and at the same time get scolded by her. She was probably one of the only people in the world who could make a dishcloth look threatening enough to cease any further argument.
"Yes Sabine," Adrien winced. Félix, who meanwhile had made his way over to the breakfast table and sat down next to Alya, just looked away.
"Jesus Christ, what's your father's problem?!" Alya suddenly exclaimed. "First, he stuffs Toussaint full of photoshoots for you, some not even in Paris, and now when you want to have one day of free time he doesn't let you leave the house?!"
Judging by Félix's clearly annoyed frown, the frustration was mutual. "Welcome to our lives," he deadpanned.
"And Alya threw you out of bed? How early exactly?" Adrien asked, grinning again, as he sat down on the seat next to Marinette.
Dear god, help me! I'm not strong enough this early in the morning!
"Too early," she just said.
"It was just eight. No biggie," Alya shrugged.
"You haven't learned anything from the sleepover, have you?"
During Toussaint, Marinette had invited Alya for a sleepover. Since she never had a real girls-only sleepover before, it had been an enlightening experience. She had no idea if it was just Alya, or if all girl-sleepovers were supposed to be this terrifying, but that's what it had been. Alya had asked her about every little secret. Some of those things she hadn't even told Nino before—mostly because he hadn't asked, not because she didn't trust him. One of the main topics Alya had wanted to talk about was Marinette's crush on Adrien. She had eventually gotten the information she desired, at the price of a few ruined fingernails.
"Oh, I have learned plenty, thank you very much!" Alya said and her smile turned almost predatory. Marinette had a pretty good idea just what she was referring to and therefore tried her hardest not to glance at Adrien.
"Yeah, don't throw her out of bed before or at eight. Horrible things happen when you do," Adrien said, which earned him a light punch in the arm.
"Just what are you implying?" Marinette said, though she knew very well what he was talking about.
"I think he was referring to the time you kicked him down from your loft bed when he tried to wake you up," Félix helpfully supplied.
"I hate all of you," she grumbled and took another sip of her tea, hoping it would wake her up further.
Nino earned the position of Marinette's favourite person that day by not only getting to her place on time but by also being the only one who didn't nag her about her existence as a night owl.
They arrived at the zoo about an hour later. Alya seemed to have told Félix and Nino about "operation Adrinette" already because they kept a noticeable distance to her and Adrien after a short while.
"Alya said that we're gonna go to the big cats around feeding time so her dad can give us a tour and tell us some insider stuff," Marinette said, deeming it a safe topic. And it seemed to be the right topic to choose since Adrien beamed at her.
"That'll be amazing! I haven't been to the zoo since we were here last year so that'll be fun." He snickered to himself. "Do you think the same thing will happen again?"
"If it does, then let's hope you're out of reach of any of the cats. Can't have you mauled now, can we?"
Marinette bit her tongue the moment she realised what she had said. "I mean, uh, I'm sure that won't happen!"
"Don't worry, I think even when Alya's dad gives us a tour there will still be glass or bars between me and any cat that could potentially maul me."
This was really not the conversation Marinette had planned to hold with Adrien and definitely not what Alya had had in mind when she had explained "operation Adrinette" earlier. She needed to change the subject.
"S-so, since we won't go there until later, where do you want to go first?" she asked and took out the map of the zoo she had gotten at the entrance. Her heart started to beat faster when he leaned into her space to have a look at it too.
"How about the red panda? It's pretty close."
"Aren't they nocturnal?"
"Aren't you too?"
Marinette had given him a light shove without even registering it. Adrien just laughed.
"Okay, I give in," he said with raised hands, the grin never leaving his face. "I-is that a new jacket by the way?"
The speed in which he changed from teasing to bashful almost gave her whiplash.
"Y-yeah," she stuttered with her voice higher than this normal question warranted. "I wanted to practice winter clothing. More than just hats, scarves and sweaters, I mean. It's just a first try but I like it enough to actually wear it. Maybe next time I'll try to make a coat."
Marinette mentally patted herself on the shoulder. Slipping into practical explanations of designing always helped to calm her nerves.
"You look amazing," Adrien said with a soft smile and Marinette barely had time to realize what he said before his eyes widened and he kept on talking, accompanied by panicked hand gestures. "I meant, it looks amazing! The jacket!" One second of silence went by before he blushed furiously. "Oh god, I mean you look amazing too! I didn't mean to say that you don't look good, because you do! Look good, that is. Especially with your hair down and that outfit and…please bury me."
Marinette, who was probably blushing as well, let out an amused snort. She knew the feeling of desperately scrambling for words to prevent a misunderstanding and digging herself a grave along the way all too well.
"Don't worry, I know what you meant," she said.
When they arrived at the red panda enclosure, they actually got lucky and saw the small furry beasts. Or at least one of them.
"It's so cute!" Marinette squeed as she watched the red panda balance on a construction of bamboo.
"Look at the fluffy tail!" Adrien squeed with her while she caught Alya's amused glance. She made some gesture with her hand that she was probably meant to understand, though Marinette wasn't sure what it meant. No doubt it had something to do with "operation Adrinette" and therefore most likely meant something along the lines of "make a move". That was exactly why she chose to ignore any gesticulations Alya did for the rest of the day.
"The little dude is very cute, isn't it?" Nino said while watching it try to eat some bamboo leaves.
"Papa said that there are two and this one is the older one. I think her name is Maya," Alya explained. Adrien 'aww'ed and then started to make clicking noises with his tongue that were probably supposed to lure the red panda closer. It proved ineffective though.
Marinette had to hold back an 'aww' of her own when Adrien pouted. He could effortlessly compete with the red panda when it came to sheer cuteness.
Their venture through the zoo continued in a similar fashion. Marinette and Adrien would squeal about the cuteness of most of the animals or laugh about the weirdness of others—Nino usually joined them in the latter—while Alya threw in some things she had heard from her father. Félix only rarely commented on anything, as he seemed more interested in reading the signs and then silently watching whatever the animals did. He also threw the occasional annoyed glance at screaming children or at people who got the names of animals wrong—though seriously, there was a clear difference between a rhino and a hippopotamus, so he had a point.
"It smells quite strongly here, doesn't it?" Félix asked after a while as they dodged several strollers and small children.
"Well, it's a zoo. What did you expect?" Alya asked, bemused.
"We were here last year already, but I also kinda forgot the smell," Adrien said.
"It's not that bad," Nino said with a shrug.
"Yeah, because you have a cold," Marinette threw in, though she silently agreed with him. She'd encountered worse. Then again, Adrien and Félix had always seemed to have an incredibly good sense of smell.
When they came out of the monkey house and waited for Nino and Alya to finish cleaning their fogged glasses, they heard their names shouted from their left.
"Hey guys, you're here too?" A familiar voice said and Marinette turned around to see Kim jogging up to them with Max in tow.
"Yeah, we wanted to see the new panther," Alya said immediately. "My Papa is her handler," she added proudly.
"Cool! Mind if we join you?"
Marinette shrugged. "Sure, it's almost feeding time anyway, isn't it?"
"It's another half an hour until then," Félix immediately supplied.
"Nice! Then let's go and find Papa! He can give us the tour before feeding time!"
And so, the newly-expanded group of seven walked over to the house of big cats. Félix seemed a little uncomfortable so Marinette intentionally hung back a little with him.
"You okay?" She asked carefully.
Félix shrugged in reply.
"You know I'm not gonna dwell on it, but you've been very quiet today. Is it just one of those days or is something up?"
Félix seemed to think about what he was going to say for a few moments before he replied. "I'm fine."
"Ah, I see," Marinette said, knowing quite well by now what Félix meant to say with that. He was a secretive person, as was Adrien, and that was fine. If he didn't want to talk about it, then she wouldn't bother him.
"Alya involved me in your plan by the way. Just thought you should know."
Marinette sighed deeply. "It's not my plan, it's her plan."
"That makes sense."
"What do you think about her so far?" She had never directly asked Félix for his opinion, so she was curious. He at least seemed to like Alya a little bit.
"Alya is impulsive and stubborn. Even if she means well, those are fatal traits to have as an aspiring journalist."
Marinette hummed, agreeing with his assessment so far.
"She is otherwise quite agreeable, yet also a little loud and enigmatic."
"That's praise coming from you," Marinette remarked with a grin. Félix just rolled his eyes.
"She's a little too nosy for my tastes. It might get her in trouble someday."
"Someday?" Marinette snorted. "Have you missed the last few Akuma attacks where she ran headfirst into danger to get footage?"
"That too."
Marinette's attention was drawn back to the front when Adrien let out a squeal of joy. It was all the heads up she needed to know that they had arrived at the house of the big cats.
Just moments later, Adrien and Kim started racing each other to the enclosures while Alya was on her phone, probably with her father. Nino, meanwhile, filmed Adrien and Kim.
"If you want a break from Alya's silly secret date operation, maybe you can talk to Max? I'm sure he'd appreciate a like-minded person to talk to," Marinette said with an encouraging smile. Félix raised an eyebrow.
"Like-minded?"
"You know, you're both very interested in science and facts and all those things."
"If you're referring to impeccable grades in school and an introverted lifestyle, then you could just say 'nerds', you know?" Félix gave one of his rare amused grins and Marinette beamed back at him. This was a huge improvement!
"Just don't be too rude, please?" she said while she skipped ahead, still facing him.
"I will make no such promises."
Marinette snorted before turning around again just in time for Alya to end her phone call.
"Papa said he'd meet us in front of the snow leopard's enclosure," she informed them.
"Hey guys! Look what the lynx is doing!" Kim suddenly hollered.
"That's not a lynx, Kim. That's a caracal," Adrien said at the same time as Max opened his mouth, and closed it again, probably having been about to say the same thing. The caracal was currently on its hind legs, with its front paws on the glass, headbutting it.
"And here we go again," Marinette said with a snort, quiet enough that Kim and Max didn't hear, but loud enough for Nino next to her to pick it up.
"Dude, I thought that would have been a one-time thing." He said while still filming.
"Doesn't seem like it."
Right when she said it, she noticed Adrien actually backing away from the enclosure. That was odd, seeing how he had looked forward to exactly this for the entire day. Or so she had thought. She walked over to him and he actually flinched when she put a hand on his arm.
"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked softly and Adrien visibly relaxed.
"It's stupid," he said and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Try me."
"Well, I was kinda hoping that this wouldn't happen again. I mean, it would have been okay with just you, Nino and Alya, but now it's not just us anymore. And Kim seems to have a nag for gossiping and Max always tries to find scientific proof and…well…I don't want to be the weird cat guy."
"You are the weird cat guy," Marinette said with a grin and nudged his shoulder. He gave her a faint smile.
"Yeah, like I said, it's alright with you guys, but…the others…"
"Gotcha. If he didn't tell Alya, then only Nino knows of it anyway. Well, and Félix, but I doubt he'd tell anyone. We can just huddle together in a group so no one will suspect you to be the one responsible. Okay?"
"Yeah, that could work. Thanks, Marinette," he said. As they walked back to the group, Marinette couldn't help but notice that he'd said her name instead using of one of his various nicknames for her. It was rare that he did so, especially in public, which meant that for him this must have been a much more serious and important moment than she had thought it to be. Or he had just slipped up and she was reading too much into things. That was an option too.
The others were already on the way to the snow leopard's enclosure when Adrien and Marinette re-joined the group.
Alya's father, who introduced himself as Otis, was waiting for them.
"The snow leopard here is named Manjula. She's eight years old and had a litter of cubs a few years ago. Our enclosure is not big enough to keep them all, so they went to a different zoo last spring," Otis explained while Manjula pawed at the window. "She's usually quieter than this," he added when he registered her odd behaviour, causing Adrien to duck slightly behind Marinette.
They continued on to the following enclosures, where Otis introduced each of the animals and answered Marinette and her friends' questions. After they got all the way around, they finally stopped at the enclosure with the new panther.
"And this is Aretha. She's three years old and got transferred here from the zoo in Marseille where I worked before," Otis explained while the previously napping feline raised her head and looked at them curiously. Or better said, she looked at Félix.
"Papa raised her since she was a cub!" Alya threw in proudly. Otis chuckled and raised his hand to show off a fang attached to his bracelet.
"This here is one of the milk teeth she lost back then."
Aretha, at this point, started to pace up and down the glass and occasionally stopped to paw at said barrier.
"She knows it's feeding time soon, so she's impatient now. We try to not feed the cats too much so they won't get fat and she didn't get anything yesterday," Otis explained.
"How fast is she?" Kim asked excitedly, to which Max provided the answer.
"A feline of this size usually runs at a top speed of sixty kilometres an hour."
"Only sixty? I thought they ran faster than that."
"Cheetahs are the fastest felines. They can run twice as fast as leopards like Aretha," Otis said.
Aretha let out a low rumbling sound. Was she going to roar?
"Yo, is she purring?" Nino asked as he also seemed to notice it.
"No, it just sounds like it. Members of the Felidae family that are of the genus Panthera lack the ability to purr and meow because they have a different bone in their throat. They roar instead, which is something other felines cannot do," Max explained automatically to which Otis nodded.
"That's right. Leopards sometimes do make a sound similar to purring to make themselves look friendly and approachable. It's like the beginning rumbles of a roar and they can only produce it when exhaling."
"Aww, so she's just a harmless little kitty!" Kim taunted. Marinette could feel Adrien tense next to her. He hated conflict.
"She is still very much a wild animal, not a house cat," Otis replied with a frown, before looking at his watch. "Alright, feeding time."
"Can we go into the cage with you?" Alya immediately asked, to which Otis just shook his head.
"No, that would be too dangerous. Aretha needs peace and quiet when she's fed and with the way all the cats have been acting today I'm a little worried. Just stay here and watch from the outside."
Alya's shoulders sagged as she sighed. "Fine. But can you keep telling us stuff about her while you feed her?"
Her father nodded. "That, I can do," he said and then left.
"This panther is a joke! It's just a spoiled overgrown kitten," Kim said once Otis was gone. Alya whirled around to him and Marinette took a few steps back as a precaution, with Adrien following her. It looked like her friend was out for murder.
"What's your problem, Kim?!" She thundered, drawing the attention of several other visitors that had surrounded the enclosure to witness the feeding.
"Problem? Oh, nothing. Everyone just hypes up this panther so much so I thought it would be something cool, but I guess I was wrong."
"Marinette, hold my phone!"
"Err, Alya, how about we all just calm down?" Marinette suggested.
"Yeah, it's not worth getting into a fight about this," Nino said and took her arm to keep her from advancing towards Kim.
"It's Aretha's and my father's honour I'm protecting! Let go, Nino!"
At that moment, Otis entered the panther's cage which luckily made everyone's attention be directed at him and the panther instead.
"Leopards in the wild are ambush predators," Otis explained. "They always try to get as close as possible to their prey and then make a brief and explosive charge." He looked at Kim. "That's when they reach speeds up to sixty kilometres an hour."
Meanwhile, Aretha prowled up and down along a fence that Marinette had not noticed before, eyes locked on the piece of meat.
"Leopards are not meant to run for very long distances though, so if they lose the element of surprise and fail to catch their prey, they won't try again. When they do manage to pounce on their prey, they dispatch it with a bite to the neck. After the prey is dead, they drag it into the fork of a tree several metres off the ground. This way it's out of reach of scavengers and it allows for a few days of undisturbed feeding."
Otis threw the piece of meat to the other side of the cage and Aretha immediately leapt for it. She pounced on her food and tore off a big piece of meat.
"Aretha here also likes to be mostly undisturbed when eating, so she usually carries it off to where she can do so in peace." As soon as he said it, the panther disappeared behind a few plants and stone pillars and out of sight.
"Fé, calm down," Marinette suddenly heard Adrien say from behind her and she whirled around.
Félix looked like he had seen a ghost. His brother had one arm around him and was looking at him with immense worry.
"We'll be right back!" Adrien said and then hurriedly led Félix away.
"I'll go after them, you stay here," Marinette said to Nino and Alya and then followed the twins. She first thought she had lost them when she didn't see them anymore, but then she suddenly heard Adrien's voice.
"Fé, everything's okay. You're in Paris. You're at the zoo. You're safe."
Was Félix having a panic attack?! Maybe he hadn't taken the sight of the panther eating a piece of meat very well. Or had it been the crowd that had set him off? When she walked around a tree, she saw that Adrien had dragged Félix to a secluded bench where he was obviously trying his best to calm him down.
"I-I just wanted to see if you need anything. I could get some water or…" She trailed off and bit her lip. Was it even a panic attack? What should she do in this situation!? Could she even help?
"No water," Félix whimpered and Marinette's heart broke. She had never heard him sound this weak and scared before. The longer she stayed, the more she got the feeling that she was intruding on something personal she hadn't been meant to see.
"Shh, Félix. Everything's okay," Adrien said soothingly and trailed his fingers through Félix's hair. She had never seen him do that before. Then he looked up to her.
"Don't worry, I got this. Better keep Alya from punching Kim in the face. We'll catch up with you later."
Despite knowing that she couldn't do anything to help, she was still hesitant to leave. Her friend wasn't feeling well and just leaving him like this felt wrong.
The sound of screaming tore her away from the scene though and made her head snap around to where she had come from. Several animals were running around outside of their cages. No matter if someone had just been inattentive or if it was the work of an Akuma, she needed to be Ladybug right now and help.
"Adrien, keep an eye on Félix!" She said before running back into the direction of the panther's cage. Halfway there she ducked into the bushes.
"Tikki, Spots on!"
Ladybug had learned to trust her gut feeling when it came to using Lucky Charms. Her gut had told her to make Stoneheart and Mylène kiss, her gut had told her how to use the ridiculously big wrench to defeat the Bubbler. It was a clear way to victory.
Now, though, she was certain that her gut had lost its mind.
'Jump into the dinosaur's mouth' it said. 'It will be fine,' it said! This was the worst plan ever!
"Chat Noir, wait!" she yelled and then pulled her partner back by the tail. It startled a yowl out of him, but at least he was out of reach of the T-Rex's sharp teeth.
Ladybug ignored Chat Noir's silent cursing and instead looked back to where Animan still lay on the ground. She knew her gut feeling was right and she had gained confidence in the past two months as Ladybug. But was it enough confidence to jump to her potential death? She had seen the Jurassic Park movies, so she knew that a mistake would end up very ugly.
No hesitation it was, then.
"Bon Appètit, T-Rex," she said as she ran towards him. She almost came to a full stop and noped out of the situation when he opened his mouth and rows of dangerously sharp teeth greeted her. Her intuition urged her to keep going, though.
One daring jump later and she was engulfed in darkness. She was in a T-Rex's mouth and was not hurt. Two statements that neither belonged in the same sentence nor this time period, but Ladybug had accepted the crazy as her life now. Using a car jack to open a T-Rex's mouth definitely counted as more insane rather than simply crazy, but she'd take it. If it worked, it worked, after all!
After throwing Chat Noir a reassuring smile—he must have been worried sick!—she went over to Animan's side and broke the bracelet that held the Akuma.
One purified butterfly and a Miraculous Cure late, she walked up to her partner.
"Bien joué?" She asked and held a fist out for him to bump. To her surprise he wrapped her in a tight hug instead.
"Never do that again! I'm so glad you're okay."
She hugged him back.
"Don't worry, Chaton. Everything's fine," Ladybug tried to reassure him which resulted in a rumbling sound. Was he purring? He had done it before back when they had first tried out Cataclysm, but she hadn't been sure if it had been her imagination.
A beeping broke the moment.
"Oops, I better get going," he said as his last paw pad on the ring beeped. Before he could completely vanish though, Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait! Patrol at seven?"
He was definitely distressed from what had just happened. Hell, she would have been too if their roles were reversed. She knew him well enough by now to see that he needed reassurance more than anything.
Chat Noir grinned. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
And then he vaulted away and disappeared over a roof top.
"See you then," she said quietly to herself and walked over to Alya's father.
"What happened?" He mumbled as he rubbed his head.
"You're alright, Monsieur. You should go back to the zoo now, though, to check on your animals," Ladybug said just as her earrings beeped.
Marinette landed on her balcony just in the nick of time as her transformation wore off. Maybe that hadn't been the smartest idea since she now needed to get all the way back to the zoo, but her house had just been much closer than the zoo. She slumped down on her chaise to allow herself a moment to breathe. Just in time for Alya to call her.
"Oh no, Alya will kill me!"
While it had technically been Ladybug and not Marinette who had locked her in the panther's cage with Nino, it had definitely been Marinette who had ditched her. And, oh god, hadn't Félix had an attack right before she had to run off and transform?! Hopefully the animals had not bothered him and he was fine. Adrien had been with him, so he must be fine!
She picked up the phone and at the same time ran down the stairs. The sooner she reached the zoo the better.
"Listen Alya, I'm so sorry about just running away but something was wrong with Félix and then the animals ran wild and I had to hide. How are Félix and Adrien? Please tell me they're okay! I'll be back at the zoo as soon as possible!"
Marinette had just stormed out of the house and rounded the corner when she saw Alya. She hung up the call.
"Are they okay?!" She demanded as she shook her friend by the shoulders. Alya snorted.
"Chillax, girl. We're all fine."
At that moment Nino opened the door to the bakery.
"Hey 'Nette, thought I heard you storming down the stairs. I think Félix is trying to set a record with how much coffee cake someone can eat in one sitting." He pointed back over his shoulder and Marinette didn't waste a second to storm inside.
"Félix, are you okay?!" She must have been louder than she thought, because some customers turned around to her and gave her funny looks. Félix, meanwhile, sat at a table and, just as Nino said, was in the process of eating a coffee cake. Not as delicately as he usually did, but in the eat-as-much-as-possible way. She blinked at the unusual sight.
"Yes, I am fine. I let those two out of the panther's cage and then we came over here. Your parents were hiding Kim upstairs, but Nino and I had to hold Alya back from running out there to film the attack."
Marinette breathed a sigh of relief but then froze when she noticed the significant lack of one specific person being mentioned in this course of events.
"And Adrien?"
Félix grinned, which should have given her the first clue that something was about to happen. Then the bakery's door swung open and she was picked off the ground from behind.
"I'm so glad you're safe, Princess!" Adrien's voice was muffled as he buried his face in her shoulder. When he finally set her down again he was wearing a shy smile.
"Sorry, I was just…very worried."
Behind her, Félix snorted. "He was frantic when he didn't find you with Nino and Alya and then ran away looking for you."
Marinette couldn't help but smile, especially when Adrien blushed. It was so sweet that he had been looking for her, but she felt bad about making him worry. She gave him a hug.
"I'm sorry for running away. But I'm okay. Ladybug fixed everything."
Adrien chuckled. "She sure did."
"You okay, kitty?" Ladybug asked when she landed on the rooftop next to her partner. Chat Noir was sitting a few meters away from where she stood with his legs dangling over the rooftop's edge and his eyes focused on the city. He turned around to look at her as soon as she spoke.
"Yeah," he said, but his drooping ears and lashing tail betrayed him.
With a sigh Ladybug walked over and sat down next to him."I'm sorry about earlier. It was a crazy plan," she said. Looking back at it now, she really couldn't believe her luck. She'd probably have nightmares about it for weeks!
"Crazy?" Chat Noir said, his laugh humourless. "My lady, convincing me to try out Cataclysm just for fun is 'crazy'. Jumping into a Tyrannosaurus Rex's mouth is insane! You could have died!"
"I know," she said quietly and looked at her hands in her lap. She knew he was upset because he had been worried, but it still made her feel like she had made the wrong decision. Maybe she had.
Chat Noir leaned against her.
"I'm just glad that it worked and that you're safe," he said and rubbed his head against hers. She giggled as his hair tickled her neck.
"Trust me, I'm glad too," she said as she tousled his hair playfully. A scratch behind his ear—the fur was so soft!—drew a purr out of him and she giggled. The purr died.
"So, you do purr," Ladybug said with a smirk that made Chat Noir whine.
"And now I'm embarrassed," he mumbled while he buried his face in the crook of her neck.
"I think it's cute."
Ladybug was curious just how cat-like her partner could get and therefore kept petting his head in all the places she knew a cat liked to be petted—or at least where her kitty liked it.
"You're doing this on purpose," Chat Noir grumbled after a minute, his voice sounding odd with the underlying purr.
"Of course I am," she said, not the least bit ashamed.
"Why are you mortifying me?"
"Because you need some proper pampering after today's battle. I even brought you some croissants."
"You spoil me," her partner said with a chuckle and sat up. "So, where are those croissants?"
Ladybug snorted. "Hungry, are you?"
"Always."
She stood up and walked over to where she had set down her backpack earlier.
"Well, if you want those," she said as she picked the backpack up and held it out to her partner, "you'll have to finish your patrol route first," she finished with a smirk as she shouldered the backpack. "Whoever's first at the Eiffel Tower will get the box of macaroons!"
When she swung away, she couldn't help but laugh about how her partner's face had shifted from confusion to betrayal and lastly to an excited gleam.
"See you at the tower then!" He called after her before taking off in the opposite direction.
Ladybug smiled to herself. Yes, her life was chaotic and more than just a little crazy at this point. But feeling as free as she did when she parkoured high above the streets of Paris was something she didn't want to trade for the world! And being able to share this extraordinary experience with someone else made it all the more special.