Chapter 20 - Plotting
Marinette was anxiously getting ready to go to school, walking around her room, getting her things together.
"Don't forget the miraculouses," Tikki reminded Marinette.
"Yeah, I know," Marinette answered, not excited at the prospect of giving out the miraculouses for more than just a fight, even though it was her idea.
She quickly grabbed her bag and carefully put the miraculouses into her purse.
"Come, Tikki," Marinette gestured for her to fly into her purse.
When Tikki was safely hidden, Marinette hurried down the stairs, ate a quick breakfast and left to go to school.
As usual she met up with Adrien in front of the doors of the school. He was smiling to Kim and Alix, who were standing nearby, but Marinette could tell it was a fake smile.
"Hey," She gently took his hand and squeezed it.
"Hey," Adrien responded and as he looked at her, she could see the sadness in his eyes.
"Hey guys!" The usual enthusiastic greeting came from Alya, who was walking towards them with Nino.
They just waved.
"Dude, where were you yesterday?" Nino confronted Adrien, "Marinette here was getting worried."
Adrien gave a small smile to Marinette, touched that she had worried about him. Then, he looked at Nino and answered, "I wasn't feeling very well so I stayed home but I feel better now."
Nino nodded, "Ok, well I'm glad you're better dude!"
Adrien smiled, "Come, we should probably head to class."
The group agreed.
When they arrived in the classroom Alya and Nino had started talking with Max, something about a project. Meanwhile, Marinette found this the perfect situation to slip the miraculouses into their bags, which they conveniently left at their desks.
Adrien, in the mean time, had managed to walk over to Chloé and have a small conversation with her. While she was distracted he secretly slipped the bee miraculous into her bag.
When he walked back over to his desk Marinette hugged him, "Thanks," She gave him a small peck and walked over to sit at her desk. No later Ms. Bustier walked in, who told the class to settle down and started calling the register.
"Looks like we're all here," She turned to the board, satisfied and started a lecture on Newton's laws of motion.
By the end of class everyone was tired of the droning voice of the teacher. The class quickly stood up, eager to go have lunch.
Adrien and Marinette had decided to meet up at a nearby cafe, to have lunch together. It was mostly quiet, they both weren't sure what to say, nervous for the reaction of the other three superheroes and for the meeting they were going to have together.
Meanwhile, Nino and Alya were sitting on a bench at the park. Alya opened her bag to get the small lunch Alya's mum had packed for them.
Alya gasped.
Nino looked at her, slightly worried, "What happened?"
"N-nothing!" She responded too fast.
Nino gave her an unimpressed look, "Alya?"
She gulped and took out the small box she had found in her bag that had surprised her so much.
"A miraculous?" Nino whispered, just as surprised as Alya, who nodded silently.
"I wonder…" Nino grabbed his bag and dug through it. No sooner he gave out a small gasp and took out an almost identical box to the one Alya was holding.
She looked at Nino, "Why would Ladybug give us these?"
"Look!" He pointed at a little note stuck to his box and Alya realised there was one on hers too.
They silently read it and then gave each other a worried glance.
"What could be so urgent?" Alya wonders out loud.
"I'm not sure, but nothing good. I mean, it's dangerous for us to have our miraculouses since Hawkmoth knows our identity so this must be really serious," Nino gave Alya a worried look.
She nodded carefully, "Yeah, we've got to make sure we don't get seen."
The rest of their lunch passes quietly, both of them nervous of what was awaiting them in the evening. Before leaving back to class they quickly put on the magical jewelry, Alya tucking the necklace under her shirt and Nino putting his bracelet on his wrist, hiding it with his other bracelets.
At Le Grand Paris, Chloé was having sushi, her favorite, for lunch. While she ate she remembered that she hadn't checked her phone for notifications since the morning.
Chloé grabbed her bag and started ruffling through the several papers of homework and gasped. There, sitting in her bag, was a miraculous box. She was speechless.
"Hello? Ladybug?"
No answer.
Ok, Chloé thought, The note just says to meet her at the Eiffel Tower, which means something must be up.
When she had finished her food she walked back to school, lost in thought. Only when the class started did she break her trance and at least tried to focus on what Ms. Mendeleiev was saying.
The afternoon classes passed way too slowly for the five heroes, anxiously awaiting the evening.
When the last class finally finished Marinette stood up way too quickly and got some worried glances from the class and a "Are you okay?" from the teacher. Marinette just nodded and slowly followed the rest of the class out, trying to blend in and not attract any more unwanted attention.
When she arrived outside of the school doors she spotted Adrien again and walked over to him.
"Hey."
Adrien looked up, "Hey."
"Um… If you want to you can come over to my house," Marinette shyly offered, "To pass the time."
Adrien gave her small smile, glad that he had Marinette to rely on, "I'll see what I can do."
From the corner of the street Adrien could see his car driving up. He waved to Marinette, "Bye."
Marinette had started walking towards her house and waved back once she reached the other side of the road. She carried on walking home and opened the bakery door. She greeted her parents and headed upstairs, to her room.
Marinette sat in her desk chair, nervously twisting a pen around in her hand.
"Marinette, I'm sure he'll be okay," Tikki had flown out of her purse and was trying to cheer Marinette up.
She wasn't really convinced by what Tikki said but she still appreciated that she was trying to cheer her up. To distract herself she flipped through her sketch book, looking for anything she could start making or for anything that was on a deadline.
She only stopped when she heard a knock coming from the trapdoor above her bed. Marinette immediately stood up and hurried over to open it.
"Hey Princess," Chat Noir had jumped into Marinette's room, greeting her. He was a lot less enthusiastic than he would have usually been, not even cracking a pun.
Marinette smiled at him, though a little sadly, and walked over to hug him while he detransformed.
"Hey," She whispered into his shoulder.
After a while of just standing there they let go of each other and sat down, Marinette on her desk chair and Adrien on the chaise lounge.
Marinette picked up her sketch book again and when Adrien saw what she was holding he walked over to her. He looked over her shoulder to see her newest designs and gasped.
"Wow Marinette! Those are amazing!" They were looking at a white and pink, frilly dress.
Marinette blushed, "Thanks. It's just a sketch for now but I hope that I can develop it more."
They had fun looking at Marinette's sketches, laughing at her few first ones and Adrien gawking at the more recent ones. By the time that Marinette was called down for dinner, they were both cheered up, even if not for very long.
Adrien kissed Marinette goodbye and jumped out of the top trapdoor, while Marinette made her way down the stairs. When she got to the table she smiled at her parents.
It was a pleasant dinner, but Marinette wasn't very hungry, anxious about what was awaiting her later that evening.
Meanwhile, Adrien had arrived back at the mansion and walked downstairs to get his dinner from the kitchen. He knew his father wouldn't be able to join him for dinner because he had lots of 'work' to do but for once, Adrien had no desire to see him.
Plagg was floating beside him, eating his own dinner, which was his usual piece of Camembert. He had tried several times to chat Adrien up but nothing he said could change his chosen's mood so he just kept nibbling at his cheese.
When it was time to start going to the Eiffel Tower, Marinette had gone up to her room, telling her parents that she was going to sleep early and not to wake her. She thought this was the perfect excuse since she actually needed some more sleep. But not tonight. She opened the trapdoor to the balcony and stepped out into the night.
"Are you ready?" Tikki was floating next to Marinette, gently patting her cheek.
Marinette nodded, "Yeah," She hesitated, "I really hope Adrien's up to it."
Tikki smiled, "I'm sure he is, especially if you'll be by his side."
Marinette nodded slowly, "You're right, he's strong," She turned to Tikki, "Spots on!"
After a flash of pink Ladybug was flying across the rooftops with her yoyo, heading towards the Eiffel Tower.
When she arrived, she looked around and spotted her partner immediately.
"Hey chaton," Ladybug hugged Chat Noir from behind.
"Hey," He whispered back, glad that she had arrived.
He gently let go of her and twisted her around so he could look at her. Her bluebell eyes sparkled with love and admiration for him. He smiled back and gave her a small kiss.
After a while of them standing, hand in hand, next to each other they heard two thuds behind them. The two heroes turned around to be greeted by Rena Rouge and Carapace.
"Hey Ladybug, hey Chat Noir," Rena Rouge smiled and waved at them.
"Hey Rena, hey Carapace," Ladybug greeted them with a smile and Chat gave them a small wave.
Carapace nodded towards them just as Queen Bee jumped down next to them. She gasped, surprised that they were so many, then said a quick "Hi!" and stood still next to Ladybug.
"Hi everyone," Ladybug smiled, "Thanks for coming, we both really appreciate that you guys are willing to come here today. So," She continued, "since we're all here let's start."
Ladybug began explaining what her and Chat had discovered, leaving out the details so to not reveal her or Chat's identity.
"Shit," Rena Rouge muttered under her breath when Ladybug had finished. Carapace and Queen Bee kept staring at Ladybug and Chat Noir, shocked.
Ladybug looked down, "This is all very new, we found out yesterday and now…. Well we think we need to confront Mr. Agreste and get the miraculouses back to end the akumatisations once and for all," She looked at the three heroes standing in front of her, "That's why I gave you your miraculouses and told you to meet me here. If you want to help you can. But its completely fine if you don't! We would totally understand, I mean it could be dangerous and-"
"Don't worry we'll come," Rene Rouge had interrupted her and gave her a reassuring smile.
Queen Bee and Carapace nodded, "Yeah, definitely."
Ladybug gave them a smile of gratitude but Chat Noir stayed still. He only gave them a small smile, but it wasn't convincing.
Rena Rouge, being the curious girl she was, immediately realised there must be something wrong because Chat Noir was not his joyful and cocky self.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Carapace started talking.
"So, we need to make a plan," When the others nodded he continued, "Okay, so we need to get into the Agreste Mansion and find him, preferably as Mr. Agreste but if he's not wearing the miraculous that could be hard to find."
Ladybug nodded, "Yes, okay. That's a start. We'll go to the Agreste Mansion and look for him. Maybe we could go during an akuma attack so that we can try and listen for where his voice is coming from. I mean he probably wouldn't just be standing around somewhere, he'd probably be hidden."
The rest of the evening continued like this. They ended up mapping out a plan and decided to meet again the next evening.
Chat Noir and Ladybug had decided to head back to Marinette's and Chat would leave from there.
"Hey," When the two heroes had arrived Ladybug gently took Chat's hand, "Well done. I know that was really hard for you but you're strong and I know that we can make it together."
Chat smiled, grateful, "Yes, you're right," He gently gave her a kiss. It was small and gentle but full of meaning.
"I should probably head back," Chat looked at the now detransformed Marinette, "Goodnight, M'Lady."
"Goodnight, Chat."
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A/N: So they've got a plan now. Will it work?
Read the next chapter to find out!