Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 44
"...With my Miraculous."
Marinette's words hung in the air as if nailed there. She watched Chat's eyes anxiously; she could tell that he was shaken up from his body language, but at first he gave no response.
"...You are not going to just leave it at that, Marinette. You know that, right?" he replied, slowly.
"Definitely not. Is there somewhere that we can go and talk?" she asked. "Like... away from a door alarm that's still going off back there?"
Chat glared at her, not entirely approvingly. "C'mon," he gestured, reaching his arm out towards her. She hopped up into position, one arm around his shoulders and one of his around her waist, and Chat carried the two of them away to a quieter rooftop.
A few blocks away, Chat sat his precious cargo down on a box on another rooftop, then stood facing her. "Okay. Marinette... I know that you're not a thief, and whatever you were doing in there was for a good reason. Can you tell me what it was, and what a Miraculous had to do with it?"
Marinette concentrated hard. I need to make this as truthful as is humanly possible, she thought. Both because he's smart enough to tear holes in a flimsy cover story... and because of who it is.
But I still need to hide my being Ladybug, so this is going to be tricky...
"There was a news report this morning on TV. The hospital that you found me near was running out of masks, and was asking for anyone's help in providing protective gear," Marinette began. "I was debating what I could do to help. I made the mask that I'm wearing now, for instance," she pointed out, "and I wondered if a bunch of those would be useful to them even if they're not medical-grade. Well, I wasn't the only person watching, because then I got a message from someone very special."
"Go on..." Chat said.
"Ladybug had an idea for how she could help... and she wanted to know if I could help, too. In her words... she hoped to have a ton of mask boxes very shortly, and could use some extra hands to help manage them. A whole bunch of little hands, if you get my drift."
"You didn't have the Mouse Miraculous when you left your house today," argued Chat.
"...And you know that how?" countered Marinette.
"Adrien told me so? He watched you leave, and you were yourself when you left, not Multimouse."
"You talked with Adrien?" Marinette mumbled. "...I guess that makes sense. How else would you have known that I was out here?"
"So Ladybug has your phone number, and I have Adrien's. Fair enough," Chat noted.
"...You don't have Ladybug's?" wondered Marinette, feeling like she was playing with fire but wanting to maintain the deception.
"Not her phone number. I mean, we have communicators that are like a private line between us, but not, like... a regular phone number. I think she's afraid that I'd pester her with love notes and memes and stuff like that," grumbled Chat. "But anyway... So, what did she do, meet you on the way?"
"Uh-huh," Marinette nodded, feeling uncomfortable. Is he buying any of this? she worried. I feel awful about doing this.
Chat's eyes were unreadable as he weighed what he'd heard.
"All right... what was the big idea that Ladybug had?"
From there, Marinette described a somewhat-accurate version of the hospital meeting, including how Ladybug had used her most ambitious Lucky Charm to date.
"Apparently, trying to create something specific and have it last longer messed with the magic somehow," Marinette bluffed. "It not only drained her energy badly, it pulled energy out of me, too, even though I was just standing nearby! I don't know that she's going to try that again any time soon."
"You're injured? Ladybug is injured?" Chat blurted out. "You didn't lead with that?"
"No, no. We're not, like, bleeding... just exhausted," Marinette assured him. "We jumped up to the roof of that other building so that when we transformed back, the hospital people wouldn't see us. She was hoping that we could just, like, have a snack and transform again and go back down there. But just making that leap felt like we'd each run a marathon. I transformed back, because I didn't feel right... and then even after Mullo ate something from my purse, I couldn't transform again."
"Ladybug was so apologetic," continued Marinette. "She wasn't sure that she could leap down safely, let alone carry me down there again, and she didn't know if what had happened had messed up the Mouse Miraculous. So I gave that back to her so that she could go and make sure that it and Mullo were okay - magic does weird things, you know? - and she told me that she'd come back for me as soon as she could. I, um, curled up and took a nap while I waited."
"You're telling me that Ladybug left you sleeping on a roof?" Chat exclaimed, looking incredulous.
"Not on purpose!" Marinette declared, feeling like her story was getting away from her rapidly. "She was hoping that she'd be, maybe, five minutes? But I woke up and it was hours later and I figured, well, that I needed to get home one way or the other. I started down the fire escape, but it felt really rickety, so I decided that I'd go through an open window and-"
"Hold on," Chat directed her. He flipped open his communicator and barked, "Ladybug... I just heard about what happened at the hospital. Are you all right? Are you hurt? If you didn't come back for Marinette, I can only assume that... look, call me the moment that you get this! I'm with Marinette now. I need to know that you're okay... and we need to talk."
Marinette saw worry in Chat's eyes... but also a fair amount of hurt, which stung her pretty badly.
"Chat, I... are you okay?" she asked, softly. "You look upset."
"Of course I'm upset," Chat declared. He did his best to muffle his emotions, not very effectively. "My partner is out there somewhere and something must be very wrong with her. There's no way that she wouldn't have come back if there wasn't! And the girl that I... um..."
"...That you what?" wondered Marinette.
"...That I care very much about was affected, too," replied Chat. "And just spent hours huddled up on a roof alone."
"I've done worse than that," scoffed Marinette, trying to lighten the mood. "In the summertime, you don't want to know how long I've sunbathed sometimes-"
"That's not the point," interrupted Chat. "Okay, it's some of the point. Marinette... look. I know how amazing you are. I can't blame Ladybug at all for wanting your help; I'm surprised that she doesn't do that more often, in fact. You and I and her would make one heckuva team."
"Well... my identity did get out," Marinette replied. "And that meant that I couldn't be Multimouse any more, or so I was told." That, I don't want to encourage, she worried.
"We're... things are complicated right now, and we're kind of reviewing that, okay?" said Chat. "What I mean is, I'm not jealous that Ladybug asked you to help. I'm kind of astonished that she didn't ask me to also help." He smiled and added, "Mini-nettes are absolutely adorable, but I bet that full-grown Chats can carry a lot more, you know?"
"Chat... I asked her not to."
That stopped Chat in mid-thought. "You... what?" he asked, not sure if he'd heard that right.
"I asked Ladybug if the two of us would be enough, and when she said she thought that we would be, I asked her not to call you out to join us this time," ventured Marinette.
"Why on Earth not?" Chat barked.
"Because I care very much about you," Marinette offered. "You've got people who worry about you. You have your new girlfriend. You have whoever the people are that you're staying with now. I wanted to make sure that you'd be home and safe this time. You put your body on the line all the time; Ladybug worries about you, and so do I. So what we were doing shouldn't have been risky at all, it wasn't a battle, but even then, I was like... let's let him rest this time, let him stay where he is, if we can do it ourselves."
To his speechless face, she added, "I promise you, it wasn't either of us saying 'we don't want to see you' or 'we don't want your help.' This was a small thing that ended up more complicated than we'd thought."
A few emotions played over the portion of Chat's masked face that Marinette could see.
"Can I take you home now, Marinette?" he asked, in a softer tone. "I'm not... I'm not mad at either of you. I think I see where you were coming from. But I'm sure that Adrien and your parents are on the edge of their chairs, waiting for you."
"...Yeah. Can you drop me off at my balcony?" Marinette replied. "That way I can freshen up a bit in my bathroom for a minute, before I face them and explain myself."
Chat gave her a bit of a funny look, but agreed, "I can do that."
Marinette hopped up into his arms once more, and the Chat Taxi Service headed across town.
*TH-BMMP!*
Marinette stepped down onto the balcony... then leaned forward and hugged Chat very tightly.
"Thank you," she whispered in his ear. "Not just for the ride, or for coming to find me. For understanding. For caring about me. You are so dear to me, Chat Noir."
He held on tightly as well. She felt a small shudder run through him.
"You... are as dear to me," Chat whispered back, his voice wavering slightly. "Don't you ever forget that."
"Nothing could," Marinette smiled. "Now... okay. How about I go settle my parents and Adrien's nerves, and you go check on Ladybug?"
Chat flinched for a second at 'Adrien's nerves,' but recovered quickly. "Yeah... that sounds good. You're sure that you're okay?"
"I am. The nap actually felt good," replied Marinette. "I'll bet that Ladybug's feeling better, too."
Chat leaned in for one more hug... then leapt away.
Marinette opened her balcony hatch quietly... peeked inside to make sure that Adrien wasn't sitting in her bedroom... then ran to her bathroom and closed the door quickly.
"Go check on Ladybug?" marveled Tikki. "You're juggling all the plates at once, I see."
"I have to!" gasped Marinette. "He was such a sweetheart to come and find me. But now I need to finish my story with him before I figure out what I'm going to tell Adrien! Before he hears me thumping around and comes running up here!"
"Marinette...?" ventured Tikki. "Tell Adrien the same story that you told Chat Noir. Don't try to juggle multiple stories."
"...Yeah. The two of them might compare notes," agreed Marinette. "Do you feel up to transforming, just to send a message and then I'll change right back?"
Tikki thought for a moment. "I think that I can do that," she replied. "What message are you-"
"Spots on!"
Crap! Crap! CRAP!
Chat Noir sped back to the alley in which he'd transformed, and called out, "Claws in!" Plagg popped into view and flew directly in front of him, keeping him from running off just yet.
"Plagg..." Adrien gasped, "Marinette's going to come down looking for me, and I won't be there! I have to get moving!"
"Take a breath," Plagg ordered him. "You went out looking for Marinette, right? That's where her parents think you are. That's where they'll tell her that you are. So be cool, all right? You didn't see her, so you're checking in to make sure she didn't come home while you were out. You'll find out that Chat Noir brought her home, and everyone will have a nice and happy reunion."
Adrien considered that. "That... makes sense," he reasoned. "But I still want to-"
"Whoa!" said Plagg, stiffening momentarily. "Transform again, wouldja? Incoming message."
"Claws out!" declared Adrien. Once transformed, he popped open his communicator and heard...
"OH MY GOSH! Chat!" a hushed-but-emphatic voice declared. "Oh my gosh! I can just now message you back, I just got this! My Kwami was..."
"Hey!" Chat yelped. "You're here! Ladybug, are you all right? Marinette told me about what happened!"
"You found her!" gasped Ladybug. "That's what I'd thought you said... Thank goodness! I owe her the biggest favor in the universe. I am so embarrassed!"
"She's home. I dropped her off a few minutes ago. She's tired, but she's pretty okay. What about you?"
"I'm okay, too," Ladybug sighed. "My bright idea wiped my Kwami out! I got out of Marinette's sight - barely - and transformed back, and then I was stuck as just me for a long while. I dragged myself all the way home and curled up in a little ball when I got there. I'm at my house now... I can't talk for very long, or very loudly, but I had to make sure that I reached you. And I'm so glad that Marinette was in good hands. Your good hands."
"Is her Kwami okay? I still can't believe you took the Miraculous away from her there!" Chat insisted.
"Yeah. I'm not on Master Fu's level... but I looked it over every which way and talked with Mullo, and I think it's okay. And when I said that I was worried that the Mouse might have been damaged... Marinette gave it to me. She didn't want to chance Mullo being hurt," bluffed Ladybug. "I felt so bad for Marinette! All she wanted to do was help and I left her like that."
"She's an absolute angel," Chat declared, flatly. "And she deserved so much better today."
"You... don't think that what I did was in any way on purpose, do you?" Ladybug managed. "I couldn't reach you without my communicator. I would have gone back as soon as I could."
He's... pushing back against ME, coming to Marinette's defense? she marveled. Wow. I've felt close with him as Marinette, but... that's kind of a rarity, isn't it? But he sounds so sincere.
"I know. I know you better than that," sighed Chat. "I'm just... I wasn't ready for this today."
"Neither was I. Or Marinette," agreed Ladybug. "But if those masks do what I hope they will for the hospital... it was worth it."
"How can I be angry at you for trying to save lives and help people?" Chat agreed. "But I still want to talk to you about today. And the next time you're going to try something new like this... please bring me along for the ride?"
"I promise, I-"
"I'm serious." There was no mistaking that; Chat's voice was carved from stone. "Even if it's just me playing taxi service or cheerleader for you. Two girls that I love could've been in real trouble today."
"Chat... I promise."
She let that hang in the air, then added, "My mother is calling me, I need to go. We will talk when we can. Stay safe, stay well, and thank you so much."
"Spots off."
Tikki floated in the air in front of Marinette. She didn't look angry to Marinette, necessarily...
"I'm sorry," Marinette whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Marinette..." Tikki whispered back, "I get it. I'm usually the first to encourage you to protect your secret. This wasn't easy for you, and you did a huge amount of good for sick people today."
"That boy cares about me... both of me... so much. And I just lied to his face, twice. He came and rescued me, and I did that."
"You did what you had to do," said Tikki.
"He loves me. The real me. And I treated him like that."
Tikki said nothing.
"And now I get to go lie to my parents, too. That's going to feel just great. And Adrien's probably out there still looking for me-"
"Marinette!"
Tikki hovered right in front of Marinette's eyes, which were watering up rapidly.
"Listen to me, please. Chat is very happy that you are okay. Both of you," Tikki soothed her. "You can talk with Chat another time. You can talk with Adrien later, one-on-one. Take a breath. You have to go tell your parents what happened... and you're going to tell them and Adrien the same story that you told Chat. Keep it consistent. If you mix stories up... well, trust me. It won't be good."
"But..." argued Marinette, weakly.
"Trust me. Just take a breath, pull it together, and go and make everyone happy. We can talk about this later, okay?" implored Tikki.
"O-okay," Marinette smiled. She took a moment to hug Tikki, then to do some quick and minor touch-up work in the mirror... and then headed for the door.