The Ultimate Scoop

The day was ending, the sun was setting behind the mountain, everything was painted in the shades of orange and red. All the colours were warm and inviting. They stopped for a while and just admired the scene. The outer walls of the temple glowed in the vivid colours of the sunset, the snow covered peaks of the surrounding mountains glowed in the same colour as the flame on a candle. The valley below was slowly consumed by the shade of the mountain shadow that progressed over the terrain unevenly. They took their time to enjoy the scene with tired but proud smiles on their faces. Adrien pulled Marinette into a hug. It was starting to get cold quickly and they were tired. And he needed her for his anchor. And she needed to know that he was there. They slowly proceeded to the small side door they used to sneak out so many times.

They got back to the main corridor, Dorje stepped out first and checked the floor, Gabriel and Nathalie were gone, he made a few panicked steps but then stopped. The others followed quickly and their first reaction was similar as their first thought was that somehow the two had escaped. Tenzin was waiting for them.

"They are both taken by the government and army." The old monk spoke while he stroked his beard and smiled a particular kind of smile, the one that communicated a secret, and it meant that the secret was safe.

The four released an audible sigh of relief.

"What about Ling and Ye?" Adrien asked when Marinette nudged him to speak, she swallowed the lump in her throat and her eyes begged for an answer.

"They are both fine. You did your job well." Tenzin smiled at the two teens. Then he winked. "I did not have to do anything, you fixed it all."

Marinette smiled widely, okay, nobody was messing up with her cousin's memories. Adrien squeezed her shoulders while he smiled widely. He was able to keep Plagg, he really wanted to keep the grumpy cheese glutton, if only to talk to him.

"And the phone?" Marinette asked worriedly. There was still this tiny matter of Ling being a lot like Alya (who could blame her) in that respect. And the girl did not mind that, really, when it was working on her behalf, because that was the was to keep everyone believing that Chat Noir and Ladybug learned about the attacks through the Ladyblog and teleported, that was needed, that was what kept their identities a secret, and yet, the same thing might have revealed their identities to the world. Or at least Alya.

"I think that there is nothing more on the phone than they saw in real life." Tenzin replied calmly. "They did not know." He added quietly. The old monk did not understand exactly how those devices worked because the students somehow managed to find the facts there that they did not know previously. But he was shown videos of previous battles and assumed that they could record only what they saw.

Marinette felt Tikki pat her belly as the kwami tried to calm her down. If everything had worked out that well, there was no use for her chosen to reveal herself due to her nervous nature. Adrien took her hand as he felt Marinette might panic and blabber out words that would just raise suspicion. She smiled back and squeezed his hand. She could do this.

"Okay, we should just keep quiet and see." She whispered and Adrien nodded. She understood that sometimes the best reaction was keeping her mouth shut, if only she could accomplish that.

"No 'I can explain' before we see what is in the video." he winked at her and she smiled sheepishly while she blushed. He knew her so well. And he was so nice to her.

The moment was quickly interrupted by squealing and running Ling who practically collided into Marinette before she stopped.

"Marinette, Adrien you are ok! I am so happy. I knew you'll get better. Ye got fixed completely. Teacher said you will too, but I had to see it to believe it. I was livestreaming everything directly to the Ladyblog." Ling exclaimed waving her phone. "You should call Alya and Nino, they want to hear from you two." The girl was so excited that she was jumping on her feet. She was so happy and so proud.

Adrien looked at Marinette and she looked back at him. None of them wanted to look at that fight, that would force them to relive it, to see Hawk Moth and Mayura again, to see what they did to them, to see them detransform.

"You know we should call them." Adrien smiled and then winked. He decided he did not want to watch that fight, like ever, if possible. He was looking forward to talking to his friends.

Marinette stiffened, she dreaded the call, she knew how many questions Alya could push on and she was not looking forward to answering any of those. Adrien smirked. He wanted to speak to his friends.

"Perhaps we should call my parents and your bodyguard first?" Marinette asked hesitantly.

"Of course, here, I'll call your maman." Ling already pressed the call button and the phone on the other side was ringing.

That talk was hard. Marinette asked her maman to put the call on loudspeaker when she heard Adrien's bodyguard was there and she did the same so the boy could participate. And then they explained what happened, as briefly as they could. There were gasps on the other side, there were shouts and there were long periods of silence before anyone asked her to continue.

"And maman, if you go to the internet, you might find a video. You do not want to watch that, we had to fight them you know, please do not watch that, okay?" Marinette begged. She hoped and prayed to any deity that is there that her parents never see that video. She knew there was a slim chance to avoid that, but she still hoped. Her maman was silent. There was only silence.

"I am not making any promises." Sabine finally answered, because in the background two large men were already loading the video.

"Maman, please." Marinette begged.

"It is a bit too late for that I would say from the way your father and Adrien's bodyguard are behaving." Sabine replied to her daughter sounding a bit distracted as if she was watching something (of course it could only be the said video).

"Okay but maman, please be assured that we are completely well, we are not injured, Ladybug miraculous cure fixed us completely." Marinette begged her mother.

"Yes madam, please tell them that we are okay, it probably looks worse that it actually was." Adrien added. "We are perfectly fine and well, just a little bit tired, that's all."

Sabine wanted to tell him that they all knew well he could not possibly be fine and well after everything that happened, but decided not to remind the boy that he should not be that.

"I believe you that you are not physically injured, but if you want to talk about this more, you can, any time, Tom and me are her for you, and your bodyguard too." Sabine replied assuringly.

"Thank you, we will, but I think we might have to talk to Alya now." Adrien replied with a hint of a smile in his voice.

"Oh, yes of course, but are you sure you are up to that? Perhaps you should take your time, you know? That girl could also wait a little bit." Sabine half teased half seriously warned them that she was not expecting only a friendly conversation from that.

Adrien quickly went to fetch his phone while Marinette hesitated.

"I will try to keep Alya in check." Marinette promised and knew she was probably going to fail, because she knew Alya, but she had to do it to protect Adrien.

"Hey Nino" Adrien already placed the video call and got a connection on the first beep. He got to Marinette and wrapped his arms around her as per usual.

"Okay, maman, Adrien already called them, I will get back to you." Marinette greeted her mother who absent mindedly replied her greeting along with something Tom squeezed through his teeth while Adrien's bodyguard merely grunted and Sabine cut the call. Their attention was obviously. consumed by the video they were watching.

"Adrien, dude, hey" Nino greeted from the screen. They could see he was in Alya's room. She was staring at the screen intently and ignored him. "Are you okay?" Nino asked.

"We are both fine, none of us is injured." Adrien smiled and Marinette nodded.

"The others are not injured too." she added after a while. Nino just looked at them and smiled.

"Dude, I have seen that fight and … I am just so glad you called that I am able to see you are okay after all that." Nino took his hat off and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"We are okay." Marinette confirmed again and smiled again, she wiggled her fingers in greeting as if that should demonstrate she had no physical injuries.

"Is Alya okay?" Adrien asked as he pointed to Alya on the screen. Alya was squirming and hitting the air as she watched something on her screen.

"Oh she is ..." Nino turned around. "Oh, come on, babe not again." he walked over to his girlfriend and put his phone between Alya's face and the computer screen.

"Hey Alya, it is Adrien! And Marinette! Look!" Nino shouted while he pulled her chair around.

"They are okay, look!"

"Are you okay?" Alya asked, her voice was hoarse, her eyes wet, there were traces of tears down her face.

"We are not injured. Ladybug and Chat Noir fixed everything in the end." Adrien smiled.

Marinette smiled too.

Alya and Nino stared at the screen

"So they did come?" Alya asked after a long pause. Her face was blank. Of course, they did not know, nobody knew, they were not in the video, they just fixed everything from afar.

"Yes, they did." Adrien confirmed and they both nodded eagerly.

"But you had to fight .. why have you fought? Nino asked

"You see, Ladybug and Chat could not enter the temple so we had to." Marinette finally spoke once she understood that their identities are still preserved. Alya and Nino would know that Ladybug and Chat Noir were there if they even suspected their true identities.

"What happened?" Alya asked. "And do you mind if I record your answer and put it on the Ladyblog?" Leave it to Alya to have a scoop.

"Babe? What?" Nino asked incredulously but Alya showed him away with her elbow.

Marinette rolled her eyes at her best friend. She was about to say yes they minded they minded a lot, they needed friends and not journalists at that moment, but to her amazement and utter horrification someone had beaten to it with his answer.

"No, Alya, we would not mind at all." Adrien replied cheerfully as if it was mere nothing. Marinette worried, she worried a lot, but she gave in, because he said so. Perhaps that was what he needed.

"Please do not live stream that Alya!" Marinette warned.

"No, she won't and I'll supervise what she publishes. It is my phone she is using right now!" Nino promised.

So Adrien and Marinette took turns in telling how they got teleported to the lair and how they saw Adrien's mum. Adrien cried but insisted on telling the story.

"I hope you do not publish this Alya." Marinette threatened with her eyes squinted and her eyebrows furrowed.

"You can if you want." Adrien interrupted. "Just please edit some parts out. Or not. I don't care."

Then they continued leaving out the stuff they did transformed and everything that took place outside the temple.

"How did you know that Hawk Moth had taken the miraculous from Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Alya shot her next question.

"I heard them talk ..." Adrien trailed off. He did not have to pretend to look hurt and unabe to talk, he really was and Alya had the decency to be satisfied with that answer.

"And you decided to just go and steal them back, dude?" Nino asked while his eyebrows raised all the way up that they physically could.

"Yeah, I had to do something." Adrien spoke. "He was .. I cant" Adrien just looked down and stopped talking. He was still holding Marinette with one hand and he just strengthened his hold. She wrapped one arm around him and took the phone because his hand started to shake. Adrien looked away from the camera and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"We did what we thought we had to do." Marinette continued. But her look was telling the words she left unspoken. She wanted the questioning to stop.

"You know, I think Alya has enough, she can stop recording now." Nino said after he switched off the recording function.

Adrien was now crying into Marinette's neck and the girl faced the camera away from them, but she did not cut the call just yet.

"Dude, I'll talk to my parents, you can come and live with me until we find some better solution." they heard Nino offer through the speaker on the phone.

"Thank you Nino." Adrien breathed out.

"Just please, call any time, okay?" The boy on the other side offered.

"Okay" Adrien replied weakly.

"And you have Marinette there, dude. Just let her be there for you." Nino continued. Right then it was unimportant who had a crush on whom and who was denying their feelings, it was important to keep his bro sain.

Adrien nodded and a few tears dropped from his eyes because of the movement. But Nino could not see that and Marinette was too taken to speak, but Nino was not even expecting an answer.

"Ye and Ling, her cousins too, they look like fine dudes." Nino continued. "I wish I was there with you dude." He wished he could take that bracelet from Ladybug shout shelter and protect his bro from the world, even Alya, until he got to terms with what happened.

Adrien raised his head and smiled. Marinette looked at him and smiled back. Then he noticed the phone was turned away and he turned it back and smiled to his friends.

"You know, it is okay, it is finished, they do not have the miraculous any more." Adrien choked out, but his smile was genuine.

"What have you done with them?" Alya asked in the background.

Nino sighed, he actually did not want to know.

"They are somewhere, kept safe now, I think." Marinette replied as she looked at Adrien.

"Just jet them be, babe. Stop questioning. You have everything you need on that video from the livestream." Nino interrupted.

Adrien and Marinette looked st the screen gratefully.

Ling and Ye were just in the background watching the exchange.

"Listen, it was a live stream, the police are at your house." Alya continued. It was not questioning, she was giving information, they did not know, her friend did not know, and he sould know, she would have wanted to know if that was her house.

"I don't care." Adrien smirked with teary eyes.

"Officer Raincomprix is heading the investigation." Alya added quickly.

Adrien shrugged, perhaps it was good that it was Sabrina's father, he really did not care.

"Major Bourgeois is coming back from holidays to handle this." Alya continued.

Adrien hitched a breath, that meant Chloe, and that meant she was going to ask questions. And he did not have the energy for her questions. At least he was stuck rather far and he had means to avoid her if she pushed too far.

"I don't care." he finally answered flatly. He did not care what happened to any property there. Perhaps he was slightly concerned with all Ladybug themed items he had stored in his room, but he had the real Ladybug by his side and knew her identity so he decided he did not care about hose either.

"If you want us to do anything over here, just anything, you name it. Okay? " Alya finished with her offer for help.

"Just please handle the media and do not let them reach us, okay?" Marinette replied and Adrien nodded to that. She was probably the best choice at that moment, it was not like he could have used someone from his father's company.

Alya was typing something on her phone.

"Leave her alone Alya, she will tell you your precious details later. It is too early." Nino scolded his girlfriend.

"Don't worry, Alya you will be the first to hear." Marinette assured.

"Hold on in there dude. Do those monks have some ways to help you?" Nino continued as he turned back to his phone.

"Yeah." Adrien finally spoke again.

"They will help us." Marinette replied. She knew they will help them, she knew how much they helped them already. "Listen Nino, we are both hungry and tired, can we call back later?" she asked timidly.

"Of course, it must be getting late there. Just call us when ever you have time." Nino replied, they all said their greetings and cut the call.