Stuck In A Bakery (With You), Chapter 50
As Tikki took her leave, Adrien examined the face of his beloved. Clearly, she was still concerned about him... and rattled by what just happened... but also filled with a nervous kind of happiness. The kissing that he expected would restart momentarily was something to which they were rapidly becoming accustomed; this shared secret, however, was a whole new ballgame.
And it's a ballgame that I need to play very, very carefully right now, mused Adrien to himself. Tikki and Plagg... DIDN'T seem concerned about my knowing Ladybug's secret! Cautious about it, sure, but they know that I'm not going to blab it all over town. And they didn't seem freaked out about the idea of her knowing MINE!
And if TIKKI is okay with it... and, wow, did I not see THAT coming...
...that just leaves Marinette. And I promise to any and all divinities who are listening that I will NOT, I repeat, NOT yell "I told you so!" about Ladybug and I being meant for each other, if I can somehow talk her into letting me share that secret tonight.
I'd THINK it, he grinned. But I'd hold it back for tonight, I swear. I'd be too busy being completely overwhelmed to do much else, anyway!
The thing is... Marinette DID make some good points, though. So I don't want to just smack her in the face with my secret. 'Surprise! Claws out!' would not be a good thing for her right now, after the shock of her being discovered. That doesn't mean that I can't share my side of it tonight... just that I have to approach it the right way. Have her be more comfortable with the idea of knowing. Make her feel like it's at least partly her idea.
And THEN maybe we'll see what it feels like to kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Adrien shook loose from that train of thought, as he caught Marinette studying his own expression.
"Are you all right?" she asked him. "I need to be sure of that."
"I was just going to ask you the same question," Adrien replied. "I'm not the one whose biggest secret just got discovered."
"And I'm not the one who just found out that he's been dating Ladybug," smiled Marinette. "Or had a magical creature voice her approval of that."
"That was something, wasn't it?" marveled Adrien, trying to look appropriately awestruck. "I mean, I've seen a Kwami before, that time that you gave me the Snake... but that's certainly not something one sees every day. Well... I suppose that you do."
"Uh-huh," Marinette giggled. "She lives in my room with me. And every day in school, she's been close enough to you to reach out and touch you!"
"Wait, what?" Adrien puzzled... then put it together, quickly. "Where was she... in your purse?"
"Exactly. If I needed to transform, Tikki couldn't be too far away from me. Pretty much every time you've ever seen me before you started living here, she's either been in my belongings or in a pocket. Kwamis can travel through walls, so if she needs to hide for some reason, she can get away very quickly."
"...What's so funny?" added Marinette, watching Adrien drawing amusement from that.
That Plagg was about a meter away from Tikki every day, since he was in my book bag, and neither Marinette nor I knew that? he laughed to himself.
"That we had the biggest secret in Paris within arm's reach like that," Adrien smiled. "And Tikki, too!"
"Yeah! ...Wait, what?" exclaimed Marinette, looking confused.
"Your crush on me. Wasn't that the biggest secret you had?" teased Adrien.
"Hey!" Marinette playfully smacked him with her hand, feigning being greatly wounded by his jibe. "I tried. I was beaming every bit of love I had into the back of your head every morning, Adrien Agreste. I don't know how you didn't feel it all around you!"
"I am very glad that you did," Adrien purred, sliding a little closer.
Time to test the waters, he thought.
"One thing that has to make you feel better..." Adrien ventured, "is that Tikki seemed okay with my knowing. As a matter of fact... it sounded to me like Tikki would be all right with Chat Noir knowing, too! If you approached it right."
Marinette glared at him, so he retreated slightly. "I mean, yes, I was listening a few minutes ago. And you were right; keeping that secret from almost everyone is very important," he explained. "But here's a question. That example you used, of an Akuma that can read minds?"
"Uh-huh..." allowed Marinette, hearing him out.
"Whether you know each other's identities or not... wouldn't you have to exercise extreme caution and some very clever strategy around that kind of Akuma anyway?" reasoned Adrien. "Because they could read your identity out of your mind, and Chat's out of his. You wouldn't have to know each other's to be in serious danger. You'd just have to each show up."
Marinette pondered that for a moment. "You... are making some sense there," she told him. "But if we knew each other's identity, if one of us got zapped by that, the Akuma would know both."
"And if you knew each other's, whoever encountered that Akuma first could warn the other that they were in danger, that their secret might be blown," Adrien continued. "Right now, how do you reach Chat Noir when you need him?"
"With my communicator. It's like a walkie-talkie built into my yo-yo," explained Marinette. "It's also like an answering machine if we're not transformed."
"But you can't just, like, call or message his civilian self and say 'Hi' or 'Take cover, you're in danger,'" said Adrien. "As far as you know, anyway."
"As far as I know," agreed Marinette. "If his Kwami is paying attention, he can say 'you've got a message,' but on my regular phone... no, I don't have his number or anything. If he unmasked, maybe I'd know him... maybe I wouldn't? I had an idea once that he goes to our school... but that covers a lot of ground."
"Another idea. Let's say that an Akuma pops up in some remote place, for once," Adrien continued. "I mean... it is weird that our entire class keeps getting hit, isn't it?"
"I have wondered about that!" Marinette exclaimed. "It's like... does Hawkmoth have some connection to someone in that room? Or can he somehow sense that I'm there?"
"But if you knew who Chat was, you could signal him to come join you, instead of just hoping that he saw it on the news," argued Adrien. "Most of the time, you do show up to fight it together. But it might be easier to coordinate that way."
"I know," sighed Marinette. "There could be some good points to sharing between us. But it's against the rules... that's been the biggest rule we've had."
Marinette squirmed a little, watching Adrien react to that. Why are you so interested in this? she wondered. In how Chat and I interact?
"That's one more thing to think about," Adrien smiled. "If you're this... Guardian now, as well as Ladybug... you set and enforce those rules, right?"
"...Yes?" Marinette replied, cautiously. "But that doesn't mean that I can just throw out the old rules. They were there for good reasons."
"Obviously," agreed Adrien. "But you're in a position to tweak them if you need to... and you might need to. For example, you're in charge of keeping all of the Miraculous safe and distributing them when and to whom they're needed. And that includes the Cat, right?"
"Yeah, it does. The old Guardian gave me the Ladybug and gave Chat the Cat, but did that secretly. I didn't know who he was until I absolutely had to, one time that Tikki got sick... and then when you found that old book of your father's," said Marinette. "When I saw that-"
"...Hang on," frowned Adrien. "So that book did end up being something important, after all?"
"Yes! The lore in it... Master Fu was his name, the former Guardian. He's... oh, boy, that's a long story," evaded Marinette. "Anyway... he made a copy of it before I returned it to your father. All those pictures of ancient Miraculous users, and the strange text that you couldn't translate? He got lots of use out of that, and translated as much as he could."
Adrien frowned as Marinette continued, "The fact that he had that book was a big reason that I thought your father might be Hawkmoth, Adrien. But then he got Akumatized himself, so..."
"Yeah," Adrien replied, looking a bit troubled and lost in thought.
"You were asking about the Cat?" prompted Marinette.
"Oh! Yes, thank you. Let's say that you needed the Cat back for some reason. It was broken, or it was being misused, or there was some ancient ritual that needed it to be present and Chat wasn't around. Or you had one of your typically brilliant plans and you needed the Cat ring to make it go just right," reasoned Adrien. "Do you have any way of reaching him, other than sending messages and hoping that he transforms and hears them?"
"I..." pondered Marinette, trailing off as she considered that concept.
"Or if he couldn't transform for some reason. If you don't know who he is, if something happened to him, how would you get the ring back?" wondered Adrien.
"I'm... I'm going to have to think about that," sighed Marinette, slumping down a bit.
She looked over at Adrien with a somewhat pained expression.
"I'll be honest with you, Adrien," she declared. "As if I haven't been tonight already... but one thing I hadn't said is that I have thought about giving up being Ladybug, because of my also being the Guardian."
"...No!" Adrien gasped. "You can't be serious."
"It's not a sure thing," Marinette explained. "I haven't made my mind up yet. But some of the things you're talking about... the old Guardian stayed secret all the time, until he couldn't any more. When Hawkmoth figured out who he was, he had to go on the run, and then he got caught and defeated and it was nearly disaster. So a Guardian should remain in the shadows, helping from afar, but Ladybug... Ladybug is on the front line against every single Akuma!"
"I do have to safeguard all of the Miraculous," she added, taking Adrien's hand in hers. "I do have to worry about getting zapped by some Akuma and then no one knowing where to find the Miracle Box, no one to pick up where I left off, no one to succeed me and keep them safe. Master Fu named me the new Guardian because he had to pass it on quickly... otherwise, Hawkmoth would've gotten all of the Miraculous except a small handful. But being that and Ladybug at the same time might be too much risk."
"Now, here's where I jump in," Adrien declared, snuggling her closer. "As my first official act as Ladybug's Boyfriend," he smiled, "I need to reassure you that you are absolutely irreplaceable as Ladybug. You were meant to be her. It's obvious in every move you make, every word you say."
"You're sweet," Marinette beamed.
"But something you might want to consider... you are juggling a lot of things at once, right? Finding new hosts for some of the compromised Miraculous, keeping the old ones safe, adjusting those rules to face the new reality. Even Tikki seemed to say that much tonight, that you shouldn't feel like you're tied to the past now."
Adrien's face was serene as he continued. "That she trusts you to guide things forward. With her help, of course! But that some rules and traditions might need to change with the circumstances. The old ones worked for a long while... but they failed in the end, didn't they?" he asked.
"Yes? ...Kind of?" mumbled Marinette, pondering that.
"And I know Chat Noir well enough to say that he would be by your side, every single minute that you need him," he smiled. "In any way that he can help. He'd help you shoulder that burden, and maybe form a new core team, and mix things up a bit."
"...Adrien?" asked Marinette, slowly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead," he answered.
"You seem very interested in Chat Noir tonight. How our partnership goes... and whether or not he learns who I really am," ventured Marinette. "Why is that?"
"A lot of reasons," Adrien gulped. "For one thing... you're Ladybug! I know that now. And I need to help you be the very best Ladybug that you can be. The better you and Chat work together, the better that'll happen."
"Mmm-hmm," said Marinette. "Keep going."
"Another reason is that you are carrying a very big burden, Marinette. Far bigger than I'd ever realized," he continued. "You're feeling like the safety of this whole city depends on you in a couple of ways! And I have gotten the feeling sometimes, even before I knew your secret... that you were feeling overwhelmed, that the pressure was getting to you."
"I've had days like that, yes," conceded Marinette.
"And I don't ever want you to feel like you're facing that alone," Adrien assured her. "Whether I'm helping you however I can... or Chat helps you how he can... or your other friends, or our classmates, or whoever... if you reach out, we'll answer. And if I can help relieve your stress in other ways..."
"Oh, you have lots of other ways of doing that," Marinette smiled back. "No complaints there. But you're not afraid that if Chat finds out my identity, he'll be all over me as Marinette as well as Ladybug?"
"Do you think that I have anything to worry about there?" asked Adrien.
"Well... no..."
Adrien leaned in close. "Chat Noir cares about you, Marinette. I know he does. Very deeply. You are the one person that he comes to visit in costume, right?" he asked. "The one person to whom he confides things? Even before all of this today, I know that he considers himself very close to you... and he values that so much."
"And just like how you've said that you won't be anxious if I'm spending time being close with Kagami, even if we've made 'us' official... and I kind of feel like we have tonight, considering everything..." Adrien smiled. "I don't think I have anything to be afraid of with you and Chat. Whether you're in costume or out. I think I know where your heart lies."
"It's right here," Marinette glowed. "And it's all yours, Adrien. If you want it."
I feel like I'm betraying Kagami a bit, Adrien thought. Not waiting to give her a chance like we'd wanted to. But how could I have possibly known THIS about Marinette?
This is going to take a lot of finesse when the time comes. I'm going to need to think about how to soften the blow for her... and get Marinette to help me work out what we'll say and do, since she knows that I can't tell Kagami this secret... to make sure Kagami knows she's very important to me, and not someone that I'd ever just cast aside...
...but there's no turning back from tonight. From knowing what I know now.
Adrien pulled Marinette into his embrace once more.
"Let me show you how much," he whispered.