Chapter 3: Truth and Lies
Marinette was in her room, working from notes from Master Fu on the Miraculous grimoire. She had let a few of the kwamis out of the box to play: Ziggy the Goat, Fluff the Rabbit, Trixx the Fox, Mullo the Mouse, and Xuppu the Monkey. They were flying around the room while she worked.
"Tikki, I'm so confused," she said. "These riddle Master Fu translated are too cryptic."
Tikki reminded her that she had helped decode the secret of the aqua power.
Marinette stood up, looking determined. "You're right, I'm gonna figure this out!"
Mullo and Xuppo were playing tug of war over an apple. When Tikki scolded them, they dropped it on Marinette's keyboard, turning on the news.
"The city of Paris is getting ready to celebrate the famous Prince Ali's birthday," said Nadja Chamak.
Marinette knew from Rose that the birthday would be tomorrow. The party was only for the upper-crust. Rose wasn't invited, to her disappointment, but Adrien was.
Marinette was going to turn the computer off again when the two kwamis dropped the apple again, changing the channel.
"...this special report on the fascinating life of Adrien Agreste!" said Alec the announcer.
Marinette started watching in a dreamy trance. "Adrien!"
The show covered a day in the life of Adrien, including posing for a wax statue, doing a photoshoot, and taking voice lessons.
"What a fascinating life," said Marinette with a sigh. She was dating Luka, and Adrien was dating Kagami, and but still...
"What a boring day," said Adrien with a sigh.
"Without even a lunch break. Ridiculous!" said Plagg.
Adrien set up his phone to play recorded piano music, so it would seem like he was in his room.
"Finally! Free at last! Plagg, claws out!" he called.
Chat Noir bounded across the rooftops to the rendezvous place for the patrol with Ladybug. She wasn't there, but now he had the buzzer.
Marinette had finished watching the show and returned to studying the formula notes when she felt her buzzer go off. (She had painted it dark red and added it to the necklace with her Kwagatama, to keep it close, since it was too quiet to notice from inside her purse.)
She transformed and picked up the message from Chat: "Hey you, Bugaboo! Well, here I am, your faithful companion, at our rendezvous point just like always. It's time for our patrol, I hope you haven't forgotten!"
"Oh no, I did forget!" said Ladybug. She headed out thorough the skylight trapdoor and rushed to meet Chat.
The patrol was uneventful. Chat suggested they might ask Mr. Ramier how he was feeling, to see if he was about to be akumatized, but Ladybug vetoed it.
Ladybug agreed to extend the patrol, since she was late to arrive. They stayed out quite a while, enjoying each other's company.
As she returned home, Labybug spotted Luka walking away from the bakery. "Oh no, the movie date!" she thought.
Her parents probably checked her room when Luka arrived, so she couldn't just appear from there. She hid in an alley and detransformed, then ran to catch up with him.
"Luka, I'm sorry. I was out for a stroll and I lost track of time. Can we still make the movie?"
"Hi Marinette." said Luka, with his usual good-natured smile. "We'll miss the first part if we go now. What if we reschedule for tomorrow instead?"
"That would be nice," said Marinette. "Thank you for being so forgiving."
"The early matinee tomorrow is the final showing," said Luka. "We can't miss it."
"I promise I'll be here," said Marinette.
That evening at home, while eating dinner alone, Adrien got a message from Nathalie on his tablet.
"Ms. Kagami Tsurugi called to inform you that the time of your fencing has been changed to one hour earlier this week," Nathalie said.
"Kagami, Kagami…" said Adrien to himself. "Plagg, I like Kagami a lot, but Ladybug gave me extra time today..."
Plagg advised, "Don't limit yourself to one kind of cheese. Try another type, you might be surprised how much you like it!"
Marinette had a hectic start of her day. She pushed a button on top of her Miracle Box and it released all the kwamis at once. They swarmed around the room, playing with everything like a bunch of noisy children.
Two of the kwamis, Stompp and Xuppu, jumped on the keyboard and started the news feed. Nadia Chamack re-read the announcement about preparations for Prince Ali's birthday. Then a call came in from Alya, Rose, Juleka, and Mylène while Marinette was struggling with the kwamis.
"Marinette?" asked Alya.
"Oh, Alya! What do you think of my new squishies? Pretty cute, right?" said Marinette.
"What new squishies?" asked Alya.
"Uh..." said Marinette, confused.
"Marinette, we're magical creatures, remember? We can't be seen or heard on screen or in photographs," said Tikki.
There was a bit of awkward conversation; Marinette finally babbled the excuse that she was exercising to get ready to make squishies.
Alya said, "Wait a minute: awkward gesturing, ridiculous babbling, weird excuses, clumsiness overload..."
The girls asked together: "...is Adrien there?!"
Just then, a call came in on her cell phone.
"Luka?" she answered, slipping with her phone and accidentally ending the call with her friends.
It turned out Luka was there for the postponed movie date, which she had forgotten in all the excitement with the kwamis.
About that time, Adrien and Kagami arrived at the school for their fencing lesson.
Mr. Haprèle was there for his part-time janitor job.
"Kagami? Adrien? Your fencing class doesn't start for an hour. And Mr. D'Argencourt hasn't arrived yet."
It turned out Kagami had lied about the schedule change so that she could have extra time alone with Adrien. They spent some time in the art room; Kagami tried to sketch Adrien but had trouble getting what she thought of as the "real him." Even a pose as Chat Noir, his truest self, wasn't acceptable to her.
Kagami pushed Adrien against the wall and said, "There. This is really you."
"Do you really think?…" asked Adrien.
"Yes, you're, perfect," said Kagami.
They nearly kissed, but there was an alert on both their phones.
"Now it's really time for our fencing class," said Adrien.
They smiled at each other and headed for the gym.
Meanwhile, Marinette and Luka had walked to the theater, playing a game of Jagged Stone song lyrics trivia since they were about to see his first movie, "Crocodile Heart".
They continued the game in the theater.
Marinette said, "I got one: 'My guitar'..."
Luka finished, "...is my only family', featured on the 'Alone on the Road' live concert. I love that song."
Marinette declared him the winner and offered him a guitar pick signed personally by Jagged Stone.
"The rules are clear, Marinette," said Luka. "This gift entitles you to a second round. 'Under the moonlight, by the sea'..."
"Under the moonlight, by the sea..." Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue! I know! His very first song! 'Under the moonlight, by the sea, KISS ME!'"
Marinette had gotten so loud that many theater-goers stared at her. She blushed with embarrassement.
"Okay, I mean, if you want to," said Luka softly.
"I do... want to," said Marinette.
They stated to kiss, but were interrupted by a loud thud.
Marinette knew it was an akuma and that she would have to go and fight it. She stood up, offering a lame excuse about going for water.
By the time she got back from fighting Mr. Pigeon with Chat Noir (who was forced to break off his fencing with Kagami), she only got to see the closing credits.
The day continued badly for both Marinette and Adrien.
Both tried to get ice cream from André with their dates, one after the other, and both were interrupted by a fight with a giant lollypop sentimonster. Hawk Moth was busy with both akuma victims and sentimonsters today for some reason.
They were both interrupted by an akuma butterfly again a little later, in front of the Collège Françoise. Marinette was riding the the back of Luka's bike to his houseboat to hear Kitty Section's band practice, but she got off to "help a friend." Kagami's car pulled next to Adrien's and they were about to kiss when he spotted Ladybug chasing the butterfly and went off with the excuse of getting something from his classroom.
Ladybug was able to catch and purify the akuma before it infected anyone, so the interruption was brief. Adrien and Kagami got there in their cars quickly, but Marinette ran there, so she was late.
After the band practice, Marinette and Luka walked together by the water.
Marinette had thought up a more elaborate excuse (one that contradicted what she said earlier about helping a friend), but Luka shushed her.
"Listen to the song of the water. If you listen carefully at this very spot under the bridge, you'll hear a melody. You know, I never knew my father and my mom would never bring herself to tell me. So when I just couldn't deal with it all, I would take refuge here and the melody of the water would console me. What about you, Marinette? Where do you go when you disappear?"
"Uh..." said Marinette.
"You tell me, I'll accept it. If you're still in love with Adrien, I'll understand. I won't be jealous, you know."
"That's not it, not at all."
"Whatever it is, I just want it to be the honest truth."
"The truth, Luka… is the only thing I can't tell you."
Luka, feeling heartbroken and betrayed, looked down at the ground. Soon an akuma butterfly and an amok feather came and entered his guitar-pick necklace.
"Truth needs to be shared, not taken by force, Shadow Moth!" said Luka in reply to voice in his mind.
"Shadow Moth?" asked Marinette in surprise at the villain's new name. "No! Luka, please resist, I am so sorry!"
Luka said, "Marinette does trust me!"
Marinette said, "I do! Of course I do!"
Luka said, "Run, Marinette!"
Purple magic overcame Luka and he transformed into Truth. Marinette ran to hide and transform.
Back on the barge, Adrien left the practice even though he wanted to try the intro once more, because Kagami said it was time. On the gangplank, his bag slipped and he dropped the good luck charm Marinette had once given him. Unknown to him, Kagami picked it up.
As they waited for their cars, Kagami revealed that she had lied about the time so they could have time alone together.
"I'm so happy when I'm with you," said Kagami.
Adrien saw Ladybug leap (to go after Truth), and he looked distracted. Kagami turned around to look behind her, but Ladybug was gone.
"Sorry, I thought I saw a wasp," said Adrien.
"I have a feeling we're a lot alike. Do you feel the same way?" asked Kagami.
Adrien still seemed preoccupied.
"Do you... love me, too?" she asked, very softly.
"Excuse me?" said Adrien.
"Adrien what's going on?" asked Kagami in an angry tone.
"I… forgot something on the barge, when my bag fell. Don't wait for me. Let's meet up at Prince Ali's birthday."
Kagami's driverless car came. She got in and drove off, steaming with anger.
The battle with Truth went well. Ladybug got hit and forced to tell the truth early on, but Chat Noir provided teamwork and timely questions which allowed them to defeat him and his sentimonster with secrets intact.
They talked on a roof after the battle.
"Woo hoo! M'lady, it's been awhile since I've had that much fun."
"If battling a supervillian with three eyes and a giant monster buddy is your idea of fun, I can't imagine what your other days are like."
"A baddie, a sentimonster, and Shadow Moth. It's even more exciting with his new name don't ya think?"
"He can change his name as often as he likes, he'll still never win."
"You can count on me and my jokes, Bugaboo." (She had admitted to liking his humor under the influence of Truth.)
"Well… you don't have to overdo it."
"Truth is, I only ever have this much fun with you. Catch ya later!"
It wasn't much later, after all. Just minutes.
At City Hall where the party for Prince Ali was being held, Kagami confronted Adrien when he said he had found his lost lucky charm, because she still had it.
"You know, I lied too," said Kagami. "I lied to my mother so that we could see each other. I even lied to her when I said you came here with me tonight. I lied at every fencing lesson so we could spend more time together. You see, we're both a couple of liars. Except I lie because I want to be with you. You lie… because you don't want to be with me."
She turned away as Adrien stretched out his arm, calling her name.
"I'll go in first."
When Adrien followed a moment later, he saw her get akumatized into Lies, with a glowing sphere of light around her that could paralyze anyone who ever lied. That is, any and every human being. And the field kept growing the more she captured.
However, Lies proved not too hard to defeat, with the help of Ladybug's flying drone Lucky Charm, Jagged Stone's crocodile Fang, and Chat Noir's heroic sacrifice to provide a distraction.
Ladybug had angry words for Chat after the battle. "Seriously, you've got to stop doing this to me!"
"Yeah, but I can't resist this angry little pout of yours when you bring me back."
Her look softened and they did a "Pound it!".
Before going home, Marinette went over to Luka's place.
"I don't want to lie to you Luka. I don't think I can- I mean... maybe we should…"
Luka gave her a hug. "When you're ready, I'll be here, Marinette."
Back at home with the kwamis, Marinette cried over her lost relationship.
"As long as Shadow Moth is a threat to the people I love, I can't have a boyfriend. It's too dangerous."
The kwamis didn't know how to comfort her. Some didn't even know what tears were.
"Just give me a hug," said Marinette.
Only one thing gave her a little more comfort that night: the realization of her deepening friendship with Chat Noir.