Miraculous:
Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir
Chapter Eight: Fashion Disaster
"Marinette, are you sure this is a good idea?" Tikki asked as she floated around her owner's room while the girl got ready for school.
"Tikki, at this point I'm not sure about anything. I'm going up against an ancient witch that I have to exorcise that apparently has decided to work through someone who has reason to hate me enough for two people," Marinette replied, pulling her shirt on over her head.
"But it's not just you going up against Etain, Marinette. It's you and Adrien. You two are a team; one of the best Ladybug and Cat Noir I've ever known," Tikki countered.
"I know, Tikki, and I get it. I hate not telling Adrien, too, but he'd never allow me to offer myself up as bait. If I find out it's Lila for sure, maybe exorcising her will stop this whole mess."
"But Marinette…"
Marinette looked at the clock in her room and her eyes bulged. "I'm gonna be late!" She grabbed her things and rushed out of her room, her kwami having to fly behind her and disappear into her purse.
"Wow, that's so awesome, girl!" Ayla congratulated when the two spoke between classes. "This time it won't be just a hat, it'll be your entire line of clothes and accessories!"
"Heh, heh, yeah, I was surprised when Mr. Agreste told me he wanted to start a program to start highlighting beginning fashion designers to allow for the fashion schools to recruit for college!" In truth, it was mostly a big sham, but it was to get Marinette's name out there and infuriate Lila. Apparently, he'd mentioned in passing, this method had worked before on her. I have to remember he still thinks like a villain sometimes. Maybe that's just the businessman in him.
"It makes sense, really," Adrien draped an arm over her as he came up to join them. "I saw it ages ago. Marinette's a natural." He gave her a kiss on the cheek.
It would have been cute if Marinette wasn't partially using him. Can't back out now. I'm in it until the end.
"Well, I'm definitely gonna be there!" Ayla assured.
At this Marinette started and shook her head. "Oh no no, it's nothing really. You don't have to bother."
Both Ayla and Adrien looked at her with looks of confusion. "Why wouldn't she? She's your best friend showing up to support you?" Adrien asked.
At this Marinette laughed nervously. Normally, sure it'd be awesome, but if a fight breaks out, I don't want Ayla anywhere near there. "Well, cause it's embarrassing, you know?"
"You have nothing to worry about. My father is amazing at these things. He's gonna make you look awesome." Adrien patted her on the back and waved as he left to go to his next class.
Inside Marinette groaned.
After school Adrien carried Marinette's backpack, along with his own, out to his car. His bodyguard opened the door and the two climbed in. "So, Father said he was going to meet with you during my Chinese session to talk about the details of the fashion show. At least that way you won't be completely bored."
"Oh no! I wouldn't be bored, besides I could use more Chinese in my life." She laughed. "After all, I am half Chinese and I would love to be able to talk to my uncle in his native language anyway."
"That's right! Well, if you'd like, I think we have some time between piano and Chinese that I could teach you a few words?"
Marinette felt her crush-related butterflies return. How many times had she imagined being in his room getting tutored by the ultimate, crazy hot model of her dreams? Now his innocence and good nature just made her feel terrible. "That sounds perfect."
Adrien was so used to having Nathalie meet him at the door, reminding him of his schedule for the day, that her absence in the mansion foyer gave him an odd feeling. If his father felt that adamant that he needed a new secretary, or that Adrien needed constant reminding of his obligations, he'd just hire another one. Huh, I guess that means my father trusts me. The realization made him puff out his chest slightly with pride. "Come on, I wanna show you something."
He led Marinette by the hand not because he thought she didn't know where to go, she'd been to his home enough times, but simply because he liked the contact. He went up to his room and hit the button that brought up his grand piano from under the floor.
"Oh wow, I knew it did that but it's still amazing to see," Marinette swooned with her hands on her cheeks.
"Come here." Adrien sat down at the piano and Marinette sat next to him. "My piano teacher has always encouraged me to start writing my own music and I never felt the inspiration…but now, being with you, having my heart filled in ways it hasn't been before, I found the notes came on their own. I call this Marinette's Melody."
She was stunned. "You…you wrote a song…for me?"
He smiled at her. "Of course. I love you." He placed his fingers above the ivory keys and after a moment, closed his eyes and played the notes by heart. His digits moved so gracefully, so flawlessly, and always on the key they were meant to. Not a bad note sounded. Marinette closed her eyes and heard the music float into the air. There was sincerity, there was passion, and the undeniable feeling of happiness dancing throughout the chords and song.
Suddenly the sound ceased. "Marinette? Are you okay?"
She gasped and her eyes flew open, unbeknownst tears flowing down her face. "Wh-what? When did I…?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry." Adrien worriedly hugged her with one arm.
Marinette threw her arms around him then and cried harder on his shoulder. "Don't. Don't apologize for being the sweet, honest guy that you are. Sometimes I still can't believe you chose a no-name, nobody like me. I don't deserve you. I'm just so happy to be here with you now."
Adrien hugged her back. "Silly, you aren't a nobody. One day you're gonna go places. I just know it. As long as I can stay by your side when the world opens up for you, I'll consider myself the luckiest guy in the world."
Marinette pulled back and looked into his face. "Adrien, I love you so much. Please don't ever leave me."
He leaned his forehead against hers. "Never, little bug." Then he kissed her gently. At least it started off gently but then both teens began kissing with more fervor. Tears forgotten, Marinette began feeling overheated, so she got her shoulders free of her cardigan and began pulling down the sleeves behind her without breaking lip contact. Adrien helped her before he quickly took off his own jacket.
With less layers, Marinette wanted to get closer to Adrien and he must have felt the same way because he lifted her up and pulled her into his lap. She attempted to adjust herself and ended up leaning against the keys of the piano, causing a loud flat noise to ring through the air. It jolted both teens and they laughed nervously.
"Adrien, is everything okay?" Nathalie asked from outside his bedroom door.
Marinette practically leapt off Adrien's lap and moved to stand next to the piano.
"Yeah, everything's fine!" Adrien called back. When Nathalie didn't enter, he and Marinette exchanged looks and started nervously laughing. "Well, that was fun."
"Hee hee, I about jumped out of my skin." She took a deep, calming breath and looked at the piano fondly. "Thank you, Adrien. That song was really beautiful."
"So are you," he replied. "And you're welcome."
Eventually Marinette had to leave him to study after he'd kept his word and taught her a few useful phrases in Mandarin that she could practice at home. She was certain her mother would agree to work with her. Marinette walked through the house and found Gabriel Agreste's office door. She knocked on it quietly at first but when nothing happened, she forced herself to knock harder.
"Come in."
Marinette entered Gabriel's office and the part of her that loved fashion and worshipped the Agreste fashion line looked around in awe. Here was where the magic happened.
"Marinette, please, close the door behind you. We have lots of work to do," he stated tersely.
"Yes, right. Okay." She quickly complied.
"Did you bring your portfolio?"
"Yes, sir." She brought up her drawings, some she'd recently added, and nervously waited while the fashion guru regarded the drawings with a flat expression. The suspense is killing me! I mean I know the whole fashion show is a sham, but Mr. Agreste isn't gonna hock just anything to the media. Wait, what if he doesn't find anything he likes!?
"Hmm, my son was right. There's definite talent in your work. They're not too edgy, the looks work for median to high end buyers, and could apply to the young and the old. Very impressive," Gabriel smiled. "These will do us nicely."
She couldn't believe it! "T-thank you, sir!"
"We can use this one, this one, this one for Adrien and then we'll use this one, this one, and this one for Lila."
Marinette's face soured when she heard the name, having forgotten that part of the plan. "Oh, right."
Gabriel pointed to one of her drawings. "Let's change this one to a brighter color, maybe a green, and perhaps add strips to this portion of this shirt."
"Right, oh yes, that works," she agreed. Gabriel turned back to a page Marinette had forgotten was in there. It was a drawing of a suit for Adrien—his blond hairstyle in the picture impossible to miss—and the dress she'd designed was from a dream she had of her and Adrien going to prom. "Oh, you don't need to worry about that one! That one I just did for fun!"
"No, no. It's fine. This will be the coup de grace I think we need to push Lila over the edge and get her to act."
The way he spoke made that bad feeling in the pit of her stomach grow. "W-what about all the other people at the fashion show? How are we gonna protect them?"
"We won't need to," Gabriel turned to her. "You're going to be right there. She won't bother to target anyone else. Besides, your miraculous ladybugs will be able to reset everything afterwards and anyone attacked won't remember, right?"
"That…" That doesn't make it right. But the words just wouldn't come.
"I'll copy these designs and start their prototypes immediately. They will be ready by Friday evening."
"…Yes, sir."
Friday came all too soon, and Marinette worked like a whirlwind behind the scenes supervising the various models showcasing her clothes. While it was a lot of work, she found she was super excited just to be a part of it. This was her end all goal of course. That and marrying Adrien, having 3-4 kids and a hamster, of course. Speaking of Adrien, he was in the corner already wearing one of her outfits while someone else applied make up.
"Marinette!" Adrien waved at her and she came over with a smile. "You ready to shine?"
"I'm pretty sure you'll be doing all the shining. I can barely look at you without squinting, haha." He kissed her getting those around them to make swooning sounds.
Lila suddenly appeared and pulled Adrien away from Marinette, interlocking her arm with his. "Costumes aside, Adrien and I look simply perfect together and now everyone will know it."
Marinette ground her teeth but managed her most convincing smile. "Well, your audience awaits. Best not to keep them waiting."
While Adrien, Lila, and the other models worked the crowd, Marinette went into her own changing room and started getting ready. Closing the door behind her, she saw her dress hanging on a mannikin waiting for her. The dress was multi-layered, white, with ruffles fanning out at each layer. Pink flowers were embroidered with green leaves throughout it and a butterfly on the right side of the waist. It had 1 ½ in straps holding it up on her shoulders. Her hair would be down, held back with a butterfly headband.
She put the dress on and regarded herself in the mirror. I'm doing this to end the conflict quickly. I'll exorcise Lila and start being the girlfriend Adrien deserves. Her assigned stylist came in, put some curls into her hair and light make up on her cheeks and eyelids. Once she was finished, she went to the back of the catwalk, still hidden behind the curtain.
Gabriel Agreste stood on the floor towards the front of the catwalk where currently Lila was latched on to Adrien wearing the last two items in the fashion show…or so she thought. "Thank you all for coming to our first fashion show for the Agreste's top up and coming intern, as soon as she graduates, Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"
Upon hearing her name, Marinette came out onto the catwalk and even though Adrien had given her tips for how to make it down the walkway, she found her legs wouldn't move once she was before the crowds. Adrien pulled at the front of his outfit. The material peeled off to reveal the white suit that perfectly complimented her dress, complete with pink cummerbund and bowtie. He walked back to Marinette and offered her his elbow.
Assistants signaled Lila to begin her retreat back towards the curtain while Adrien and Marinette walked forward together. Marinette was slightly satisfied when Lila looked angry enough to skin a cat with her bare hands. Camera flashes went off like crazy, making Marinette slightly dizzy. She squeezed Adrien's arm and he gently patted her hand in reassurance. How does he see with all the flashing? Seriously, I'm gonna see spots long into next year at this rate. At the end of the catwalk, Adriel dropped to one knee holding her hand and Marinette walked in a circle around him, showing off the dress from all sides. So far, so good…your move, Lila.
In her dressing room, Lila picked up anything that wasn't tied down and threw it across the room. She refrained from breaking her full-length mirror because of the individual watching her from the other side. The woman there wore black and red robes and had long black hair flowing in large waves behind her. "Don't worry, mon Cherie, they will not be together long."
"But who here hates them as much as I do to possess!?" Lila demanded.
"Ah, but my sweet, you do not need a living individual to imbue with power. Close your eyes," Etain's aura glowed green and that energy transferred to Lila. "Emotions are powerful and can effect more than just the present. Everywhere there are imprints of people who died with their hearts full of hate. You just have to find the right one and…"
Lila extended her senses and smirked when she found one that would suit her needs perfectly. "Come to me, Stone-eye, and I will you the power to exact your revenge!"
Marinette felt it happen and spun around to see something she hadn't been expecting. With the bottom portion of the creature resembling a giant snake, the unknown woman—at least Marinette thought she was a woman—looked like she was wearing a tattered wedding dress. Her medium length brown hair moved almost like it was alive. Are those…snakes? She saw the couple standing at the end of the catwalk, dressed so formally, and let out a shriekish scream that shook the rafters. A beam of energy shot out of her eyes right towards her and Adrien.
"Look out!" Adrien grabbed hold of Marinette and dove off the stage. He quickly spun around so he was on the bottom so he could break their fall. The beam hit one of the photographers and their form immediately hardened into stone. Adrien growled and shot to his feet, maneuvering in front of his girlfriend. "She's like medusa! We have to purify her now before any more people get turned to stone!"
Marinette looked around and saw the emergency exit stairs. "Everyone, get out of here quick!" When the audience started rushing around, Marinette took the opportunity to pull Adrien another way into the backstage where they could use one of the changing rooms. It was impossible to move around with such a fluffy dress.
Opening her senses, she was able to identify the unique aura a possessed person makes. Searching around with her mind, she was able to pinpoint a second aura far to the left near another of the exists. There she was Lila watching with narrowed eyes. It is here! As soon as I transform, I'll purify her and end all this craziness!
Once they were inside the changing room, she quickly shut the door, "Tikki, spots on!"
"Plagg, claws out!"
When Ladybug burst back into the main area, most of the people had fled but there were about half a dozen victims turned to stone. It reminded her of Befana when she turned people into coal. "No…it wasn't supposed to be like this." Searching around, she looked for Lila but couldn't sense her. She did see Gabriel Agreste watching indiscreetly from the stairwell.
Cat Noir heard her but quickly dismissed it, thinking he'd misheard. "What are you looking for!? The creature is still on stage!" Cat Noir ran forward intending to buy the stranglers time to escape by giving Stone Eye something else to focus on.
"Lila! She's the one who summoned it! If I purify her, I can end this!" While scanning the area, Ladybug saw something else. She gasped, "Alya!" The girl was hidden behind something video recording everything. Stone Eye saw her and Ladybug quickly flew in with her yoyo and scooped up Alya, placing her higher up near the overhead sound booth. "What are you still doing here? Why didn't you leave with the others!?"
"This isn't Hawk Moth's doing is it? It doesn't have the same feel as a person who's been akumatized." Apparently, the journalist in her couldn't help digging for the details.
"No, this is something different. It's more dangerous. I'll get you an interview later, maybe, but you need to leave now." Ladybug was terser than she intended to be, but she had to find Lila. Hoping she listened to her, Ladybug spun her yoyo and knocked Stone Eye in the head before she leapt down and landed next to Cat Noir.
"How do you know it was Lila?" Cat Noir asked, dodging the creature's tail when she spun.
"I get the same feeling from both. The aura is the same, I guess." Using such terms still sounded foreign in her mouth. She growled, "I think our minx has left though, 'cause I don't sense her anymore."
Stone Eye shot more beams and the two superheroes had their hands full trying to dodge them all. "We have to neutralize her eyes!"
"Got it! Lucky charm!" She called on her special power and a large, black electronic fell into her lap. "W-what? What is this!?"
"Look out!" With both her hands full, Cat Noir wrapped an arm around her and activated his pole, launching them up into the sound booth area. Unfortunately, his pole got hit and hardened into stone. The next instant, Stone Eye spun her tail and shattered it. He saw the machine and his ears perked up. "Hey, I know what that is! It's an EMF reader. They have it on those ghost hunter shows."
Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you would watch those things." She looked at the machine with a face. "So, this senses ghosts?" Then it clicked. "That's who she possessed! She didn't have a person to target without enough hate, and she wouldn't come against me on her own, so she possessed a ghost!"
"What do you mean come after you?" Cat Noir narrowed his eyes. "You knew this would happen, didn't you?" He looked around and spotted his father watching everything. "You two planned this!?" He spun back around to face Ladybug. "Are you out of your mind? It wasn't enough to almost lose yourself to that…that dirtbag, but you wanted to serve yourself up on a silver platter?"
"Look, now's not exactly the time, okay? Right now, we have a monster to stop!" She turned on the machine and turned it this way and that. It seemed to be pointing to the left which made sense because that's where she saw Lila last. "Do you think you can buy me time without your weapon?"
Cat Noir scoffed, "Yeah, whatever," he responded in a flat tone. "I'll manage." He leapt off and waved at Stone Eye. "Hey, over here!"
Ladybug waited until the monster was turned to the right to jump down and follow where the machine told her to go. It seemed to work like the metal detector she'd used inside Feist. It led her to the back wall and the readings were high enough she thought what she needed was inside the wall and not beyond it. "Cat Noir!"
He backflipped to avoid her stone beams then spun to hit the monster in the face with a kick which stunned it before he came to join her. "Cataclysm!" he dissolved the wall with his power and instantly returned to his fight without so much as a word.
I'll make it up to him later. She brushed off and looked inside the wall. There was a newspaper clipping from so long ago, Ladybug felt the edges crumble just upon her touch. She read an article on the side that jumped out at her: 'Bride Left at the Alter, Groom Leaves with Mistress'. The woman in the picture was wearing the same dress as their medusa. That's why she hates us! We looked like we were a marrying couple! Scanning the article for key words revealed the woman had committed suicide by hanging herself in this building which used to be a church. It was later destroyed and the current building created on top of it. That was why her spirit still remained in a state of unrest here. Next to the article was the veil, discarded and dirty after decades of neglect.
"I'm down to four minutes, if you care!" Cat Noir spouted.
She rolled her eyes again. "That's more than enough time!" Running at Stone Eye, Ladybug ran up her thick tail and jumped onto her shoulders from behind. Taking the veil, Ladybug wrapped it around the creature's eyes, preventing her from using her stone gaze. Screaming like a banshee again, the monster spun around and tried to throw off her unsolicited rider. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened to you, but doing this now isn't going to bring him back to you! He's long dead and so are you!" she tried to convince. "Adrien and Marinette weren't getting married! It was all for show!" She meant fashion show but the look in Cat Noir's eyes was evident. "You don't need to take out your anger on us. Calm down and I can make sure you rest in peace finally."
The monster finally started slowing down enough that Marinette thought she'd be able to work her magic. Leaping off her shoulders, Ladybug spun in the air upside down and opened her yoyo. "Time to exorcise!" She aimed the bright beam of white light at the monster and just like before, the form of the monster smoked and dissolved. The black aura dissipated, leaving behind only the see-through specter of a beautiful woman in her wedding dress.
"Thank you, Ladybug, Cat Noir…I had all that hate for so long that I couldn't see straight to know I was only being used." Cat Noir came up to join Ladybug as the woman spoke. "You two looked so perfect standing on that stage together. It reminded me of better days that had been denied to me."
"May you go in peace to a place better than this." Ladybug waved as the specter faded and her presence disappeared. Looking around it appeared that Gabriel had vanished as well. "Guess there's only one thing left." She went to the EMF machine and threw it up in the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The people in the room were returned to normal and all of the damaged sustained by Stone Eye was restored.
Returning to the changing room, Adrien said, "Claws in."
"Spots off." Marinette looked at Adrien sadly. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"Don't," he cut her off. "I don't want to hear your reason for feeling like you had to keep me in the dark." He glared at her and she could see the hurt swirling in his green orbs. "I've spent the last year and a half with my father keeping secrets from me—about my mom, about being Hawk Moth, about stuff that really mattered. When it came to us, I thought we were done with the secrets."
"You never would have agreed to the plan if you knew I was the bait!" she argued.
"Exactly! And it never occurred to you that it might be a bad idea because of that!?" He held her by the shoulders. "The fact that I didn't want you hurt? The idea that this might be ill-timed because we still don't know enough about our enemy?" He pulled back and looked at her. "Why the rush anyway? You never sought out Hawk Moth so recklessly. You knew his time would come."
She sighed. "I wanted to be able to enjoy my time with you instead of worrying about constantly having someone or something appear to attack us or the ones we love. I wanted to make the first move."
"Well congratulations. You did. I hope you found what you were looking for." Adrien turned and started to leave.
"Adrien wait!" But he didn't listen. He ran out of the changing room and took off out of the building, leaving Marinette behind…
Adrien ran blindly through the streets, not really knowing where he was going. He remembered the feeling of separation from his partner when she was hiding the fact that she knew Master Fu or where she would go to get the other miraculous to lend to others. He wanted to trust her, but she wasn't being completely honest with him. What made matters worse this time was that she'd teamed up with his father of all people to do it. He loved his father, but he didn't always agree with his methods.
He ran until he got to the fountain in the park. He sat on the edge of the cement and stared down into his lap. So many things could have gone wrong, the creature could have turned Marinette into stone and then they would have no one to purify the monster and save everyone.
"If she truly loved you, I bet she'd trust you," a voice said behind him.
"What!?" He spun around but didn't see anyone.
"Do you really believe in your heart of hearts that she loves you? How do you know you truly love her when so little love has been shown to you, even in your own family?"
The voice was coming from the water. Adrien leaned forward and saw his own reflection at first. He was still dressed in the white suit from the fashion show. His image warped until it began to show the image of the dark witch. She smiled at him from under her hood. When she lifted her face, he saw amazing green eyes that reminded him of his mother. "Are you…Etain?"
"I am."
He narrowed his eyes. "You're the reason all of this is happening to begin with!" he accused. "Why can't you just leave us alone? Stick to your own time and release poor Lila."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about Lila, there's nothing poor about her. She is strong and knows exactly what she wants." Etain smiled. "What do you want?"
"Nothing from you." He knew better than to trust a witch. "Just leave me alone."
"Oh, but your spirit is in such turmoil," she said smoothly. "I only want to help." Her hands reached up, out of the water, and as he leaned forward his eyes became glazed. She placed her hands gently on either side of his face. "You feel so alone and hurt. I can make you feel better. You don't need Marinette. You don't need Ladybug. You only need Etain."
"I only need Etain," Adrien echoed in a flat, drone-like voice.
"That's right…Come to me…"
"Adrien!" Marinette called out looking around for him. Her phone beeped and her Adrien fan tracker notified her that he was seen at the park, sitting on the fountain. "Oh, at least he isn't far." She sped up to a jog and steered herself towards the park.
When the park came into view, she saw Adrien leaning towards the water. He looked like he was talking to someone. As she got closer, she saw arms reach up out of the water and that's when she went on alert. "Adrien!" She called out now running at him full speed.
The hands caught him on either side of head and pulled him down into the water. Marinette reached forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. She cried out as if something was burning her but she refused to let go. "Give him back!" she pulled, using the edge of the fountain as leverage and eventually freed Adrien from the water. They fell backwards and Adrien immediately began coughing up water.
"W-what happened!?" he asked, his upper body completely soaked.
Marinette took a few bracing breathes, regarding her arms with concern as she spoke. Not wanting to worry him, she turned around to hide them from him. "You looked like you were being pulled under by someone, I didn't see who."
Adrien looked back at the fountain, his breath still coming to him in large gulps. "I…I don't remember."
Marinette looked over and saw his bodyguard had arrived, probably using the same app she did to keep track of him. "Looks like you're okay now so…I guess I'll get going." In all honesty, she wanted to talk to him more, but she had to get her arms looked at. The skin was warped, like a burn, but the surface was a dark grey, almost black. She didn't want Adrien to feel bad. Whatever she wanted to say, it was going to have to wait until later. At least she'd have the weekend.
Adrien got home, stripped out of his clothes and stepped into the shower. Etain smirked as she watched him unknowingly from his bathroom mirror. Now that the connection was made, she could take steps to truly punish the current Ladybug and eventually Cat Noir. His sculpted body pleased Etain and while he was not her Cat Noir, he was definitely easy on the eyes. She looked forward to having fun with him.
Adrien shivered until the hot water eventually began to warm his body. He lied when he told Marinette he didn't remember anything. He remembered seeing Etain. Her beauty caught him off guard. Her voice was so soothing and her skin relaxed him when she touched the sides of his cheeks.
Adrien loved Marinette and he knew they'd eventually get past this, but right now he just needed space.
"All lovers have spats," Plagg said as he ate his cheese on the other side of the curtain. "Take me and sugar cube for instance."
"You guys are together?" Adrien asked in surprise.
"Well, we kwamis don't have traditional partners like you guys have but we've been together forever. She knows all my favorite cheeses and I know all her favorite sweets. Marinette may feed her cookies, but she's got a soft spot for cheesecake, says it reminds her of me. Of course, she'd never admit it."
"You guys do fight a lot."
"Right!? So give Marinette some slack and move on to bigger and better things."
That made Adrien stop. "Bigger and better things?"
"Sure! You've tons more experiences that you haven't shared together yet, right? Aquariums, amusement parts, the beach, the movies, the…" Plagg made a shivering sound before he added. "Kissing in the dark. Humans love that or so I'm told."
Adrien's face heated up and he threw his head out of the shower to glare at his kwami. "From where!?"
"TV, I finally figured out how to change the channel on my own. Tikki said I was out of touch with this generation's fads and faux-paws so I figured I had to do research."
Adrien groaned, barely being able to imagine what kind of shows his kwami would watch when he wasn't around—which wasn't often.
"You can't tell me you've never thought of Marinette like that." Plagg took another bite of camembert.
"Y-you know I do! I just…don't always know how to act on it, exactly." He turned the water off and wrapped himself in a towel.
Plagg laughed, "You didn't seem to have any problem when you guys were on the piiiaaanooooo."
Adrien bopped him on the head, his face physically unable to get any redder. "Shut up." He sighed and looked into the mirror. "I want to, but I'm constantly reminded that she went behind my back. I mean, if she did it once, what's to stop her from doing it again? If we're not a team anymore, then what's the purpose of Cat Noir? What's my purpose?"
"That's going a bit extreme, don't you think? Ladybug still needs Cat Noir and Cat Noir still needs Ladybug," Plagg insisted.
"Maybe, I just don't know anymore." Adrien left the mirror to get change. Unknown to him, as soon as his back was turned, Etain showed herself in the mirror smiling…just smiling…