The long ride (home)
The (extended) family finished their (substantially improvised) lunch on the train in good mood. After lunch, everyone lied down to take a nap. Adrien and Marinette just finished the talk with Nino and were going through the messages they got from their classmates. 'Be brave.' and 'Can't believe I fell for that bitch.' as well as 'Sorry for not trusting you.' were rather common. Adrien got a lot of messages of support from Vincent and the crew that worked with him on the photo shoot.
Adrien was typing a really long response to Chloe. She did not understand why he did not demand a helicopter and a private jet, he could have been in Paris few days ago (according to her) the same time she flew back from New York. And there was a demand (because Chloe did not ask) for clarification about the photos and Nino and Lila and everything. He already warned her not to trust Lila, but Chloe wanted it all over again, because of the interview.
Marinette just sent a message to her classmates that she did not see the interview and had no intention to do so because she did not want to acknowledge the liar. She noticed there were messages from Nadia Chamack, the last one was a question when was she coming back. Marinette assumed she needed a babysitter for Manon. Then there was a list of almost identical messages from both Penny Rolling and Jagged Stone, she assumed Jagged wanted her to design something, she replied she was doing great and when she planned to return.
"Perhaps you should watch the video." Alix replied in a message instantly. "But beware, it is full of really nasty lies." Marinette sighed, there was no escape from that, she read enough reactions, her parents were hiding it from her, she knew.
"I think we have to watch that video." Both teens said in unison and broke the silence. Adrien clicked on the link Chloe sent him. They watched the video while the rest of the group was sleeping.
It was hard to digest. Adrien understood the questions he got from his legal representative much better. That woman was a genus, she cleared everything up by asking for so little. He knew it was a lie, he knew his legal representative knew it was a lie and did necessary precautions. The boy was so used to different pieces of 'news' ignored or handled by the public relations people. That was always someone else's problem.
Marinette, on the other hand, was not well. Her brows furrowed, her expression dark, her fists clenched so hard her knuckles went white. Adrien was used to gossip, rumours and public relations dealing with anything that tabloids would post, Marinette had very little experience, only as Ladybug, and it hardly required any kind of response.
Tikki sat on Marinette's shoulder as the video played. The tiny red goddess of creation was considering creating a specific genetically adapted virus for the girl. They created those person specific medical treatments to cure humans, there was surely a way to make specific illness that would target a specific person, right? But she was a goddess, she was better than that, so she patted the face of her chosen in the hope to comfort her.
Plagg muttered something about cataclysm and living beings and Adrien patted his head.
"She is lying. Everyone knows she is lying." Adrien whispered to her gently as he held her closer.
"Alya believed her, apparently." Tikki gritted through her teeth.
"Humans are blind and stupid, I am telling you, kid." Plagg muttered again.
"No, Adrien. She is too good at this. I think many people believed her." Marinette squeezed out through the tears of anger that streaked down her face.
"That site is not a real news site, it is just gossip and clickbait, just look at the other titles advertised here." Adrien pointed. "Your real father is an alien and so was my mother?"
Marinette started to laugh at that, a bit too loudly. She sounded hysterical as she switched so quickly between anger, crying and laughter.
"I have to give her credit, this sounded more believable than most of the tall tales she said at school." The girl waved her head. "The way she twisted the truth, you are practically forced to admit what she said is true or you are collaborating with Hawk Moth."
"I thought I told your mother to take away your phones so you would not see that." Tom said. They saw him standing up and looking up at them where they were, cuddled together on the top bunk bed, the one that was used by Marinette.
"Um, we did the online check in." The girl replied quickly.
"And we chatted with Nino a bit." Adrien smiled.
"You shouldn't have watched that. You did not deserve that." Tom spoke calmly but it was clear there was anger hidden behind his words. Anger not aimed at them.
"We can't protect them from that for ever, they would have seen it once we got to Paris anyway." Sabine spoke sleepily from her bed.
Tom returned to his bed while the two kids kept themselves busy with checking the messages. Marinette finally replied to everyone who asked her when she was returning home.
That evening Sabine and Tom encouraged Marinette and Adrien to make the dinner again. The adults wanted to discuss the request from Nadia Chamack for an interview with the two kids. They both feared the invasion of privacy, but they both also knew there were too many rumours started. Adrien's bodyguard was not much help, his legal representative decided to wait for their return. Nadia was impatient, but ready to wait.
The two kids were concerned about something completely different while they were waiting for the cooking appliances to become available again..
"You know that Ladybug and Chat Noir did not make an appearance in Paris since we left?" Marinette whispered. She had no time to worry about that until then, but she was back to her worries about hiding their identities.
"Well, there were sightings reported, you know?" Adrien winked. He was glad that Alya did not fact check everything before she posted it and she loved to theorise and make speculations, especially when she was bored and had no real news to publish.
"Someone might make a connection and reveal our identities." Marinette worried. The noise from the train and the kitchen appliances masked their conversation for anyone else, but Plagg and Tikki remained silent and hidden until the two kids were alone.
"If they do, does that mean we have to stop being Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Adrien whispered to her ear.
"We are guardians now." Marinette whispered. "It is worse. I guess we have to renounce our memories too."
Adrien gulped. That meant he would have to forget Marinette? That was a disaster. Suddenly he was really worried.
"But who will be the guardian then?" Adrien asked the first logical question that popped up on his mind.
"I don't have a clue." Marinette admitted.
The kitchen was free and they started with the procedure.
"I say people are stupid and blind and nobody will realize it was you." Plagg said the moment he floated out from Adrien's pocket.
"There is only so much we can do to hide their identities with magic and you know it Plagg." Tikki chirped as she floated out from Marinettes shoulder bag.
"Just give them some Camembert and they will forget." Plagg retorted.
That made both kids giggle.
"That would leave less Camembert for you, Plagg." Marinette teased between her laughs.
"That reminds me, kid, what about my dinner?" Plagg demanded and Adrien produced a piece of cheese. It was not Camembert.
"I wondered when will you ask for it." Adrien replied as he gave the tiny black god of destruction a piece of cheese.
"You made me wait for it? You made me ask?" Plagg complained but swallowed the cheese in one bite.
Adrien laughed.
"It is not even Camembert. Oh I feel so homesick." Plagg whined.
"That temple is supposed to be your home." Adrien teased.
Marinette gave a cookie to Tikki with much less fuss.
"What if Markov made Alya remove all those reports of people who claimed they saw us and posted photos of us on her blog?" Marinette whispered.
"That is certainly possible if his software is working correctly." Adrien confirmed her doubts.
"The only way to prove you are there is to actually appear there, Marinette." Tikki chirped.
"People are stupid, but that little robot guy is clever, just like us Sugarcube." Plagg said.
"Do you think we should make an appearance before we return?" Marinette whispered to Adrien while they stirred the food.
"You mean?" Adrien grinned. Marinette smiled back.
"Should we talk to Kaalki and Fluff?" The boy whispered. Marinette nodded.
Then they heard someone coughed behind them and they both jumped apart while their kwami phased into their clothes.
"What is cooking in here?" Ling teased with Ye by her side.
"We came here to take whatever is finished to feed the hungry." Ye spoke while he purportedly stared to the side.
"Um, we have finished these, on this side." Adrien motioned towards several bowls. At that moment the microwave pinged.
"And here is one more." Marinette grinned.
"So what is the speciality on the menu this evening?" Ye asked as he picked up the bowls.
"What would the chef recommend?" Ling reached for the microwave.
"Noodles with sweet and sour topping." Adrien read from one of the bags.
Marinette laughed and her cousins were already leaving when Ling made a step back.
"Whatever you do, don't get caught." She teased and disappeared.
"So Kaalki and Fluff?" Marinette continued their previous conversation.
"Fluff is the last resort Marinette." Tikki warned.
"Are you sure you want to wield another miraculous again?" Plagg asked his chosen with a serious expression on his face.
"You should not mess with time." Tikki repeated the advice Marinette was given several times already.
"Navigating teleportation is serious issue." Marinette whispered. "Even Max got us to hang from the Big Ben."
"We could go there, but we would have to hit a moving train on the way back." Adrien pondered.
"You do not have the greatest record from wielding other miraculous kid." Plagg warned.
"We should just talk to them, no transforming, no teleportation, no time travel." Marinette resolved the argument just in time.
Adrien was relieved but still worried. When Ling and Ye returned for more food, the kids were not sure which noodles were boiled and which were not, everything got mixed up. Fortunately, the two older teens decided the two young teens were messed up because they were in love and did not suspect anything else.
"How do you chose the wielders?" Adrien asked quietly.
"I chose … well I did make a few errors, but I chose those people that I thought I could trust and I thought would be compatible with the powers that their kwami would give them." The girl spoke quickly and quietly.
"Do you think we might use Ye to wield the Horse miraculous?" The boy whispered his idea. "He is good in science."
"No, we would have to separate him from the group while not transformed then he would have to see us transformed on the train and create a portal and … it would certainly reveal our identities to him." Marinette whispered. "Besides, he has no experience, he might make errors too."
"Did master Fu chose us because he saw us in the temple?" Adrien whispered. That was one of the things that bothered him, another was if Master Fu chose him because he was the son of Hawk Moth but the boy was not ready to say that thought out loud.
"Probably." Marinette replied after she considered the question. "It certainly helped. He had no Book of Lore to guide him during all those years. He did not complete his training, he had no book to guide him, only the kwami, with two of the jewels and the kwami missing."
"Um, yes we still have to get that back." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah." Marinette whispered as she looked down to the bowl before her. She concentrated on preparing the food. She did not want to remind Adrien (nor herself for that matter but her thoughts already wondered away in that direction) about his mother nor Felix nor the rings nor … whatever they would find once they went in that direction.
Later that evening the kids took the watch and the glasses and sneaked away into the same small storage they used on the way to Lhasa. Kaalki observed the boy warily and advised against teleportation onto a moving train if it was not absolutely necessary. Fluff on the other hand stated 'everything is resolved, whenever'.
"We can't really make a video call from here." Adrien looked around the small storage room. "There is no blank nondescript background." The shelves and walls were full of signs that would have given them away. Finally Marinette got an idea and took out her phone.
"We can assemble a message and send it." The girl started to type. "Citizens of Paris, we are currently resting after fighting akuma for years. You are neither abandoned nor forgotten. Please take care of yourselves. Yours Ladybug and Chat Noir." Adrien insisted to change forgotten into furgotten and transformed.
"I am sending this from my baton." Chat Noir winked as he copied the message and sent it away to news agencies. Then he quickly detransformed.
"What am I? A phone booth now?" Plagg groaned. "I am so hungry, I did not have a proper piece of Camembert for weeks." Adrien produced a piece of cheese and fed the hungry glutton.
After that the four kwami chatted and floated around the small storage space. The two kids had different things on their mind. They were finally alone (save the kwami), away from parental supervision. Adrien took her hand. Marinette squeezed it back. They entwined their fingers and stared at the general direction of each other as they could not see well in the darkness.
"I was thinking about us, My Lady." Adrien whispered.
"Um, me too." Marinette muttered back. She felt his breath on her face.
"Really, what were you thinking?" The boy smiled in the dark.
"You first." She replied quickly.
"Well since we are already married." He teased. He needed it to be brave to do it to finally ask what was on his mind.
Marinette groaned. But she was grateful for the darkness because her cheeks were burning.
"Perhaps we could you know I mean we could ..." Adrien was suddenly surprised by his own lack of eloquence.
"Would you be my boyfriend?" Marinette blurted out.
"go on a date? I was about to ask you to go on a date. But yes! Yes! I want to be your boyfriend, Marinette. If you would be my girlfriend, that is." Adrien was beyond happy. He was giddy and almost bounced on his feet.
The girl was holding onto him because her legs were becoming less stable with each moment.
"I love you Marinette." He whispered.
"I love you too." She replied and after a few misses they found each others lips in the darkness.