Chapter 3
For the next three weeks, Marinette was a bundle of nerves. She spent hours trying to wrap her head around the fact that she could be... pregnant. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, an eighteen-year old klutz who couldn't even hold a conversation with a boy, was going to be a mom. And she couldn't believe it. In the privacy of her room, she went from website to website to gather as much information as she could about pregnancy. According to one website's timeline, she would soon be experiencing cramps, mood swings, and changes in appetite. It would be easy enough to hide those things from her friends, but morning sickness was a different story. Unfortunately, she was already starting to feel nauseous, and she knew it wouldn't be long until the dreaded symptom made a full appearance.
School was a nightmare, especially since she sat right behind Adrien. She felt so ashamed; she had always expected her first time to be with him, and now she would never get that chance. Marinette knew he did not care what she did with her love life, but it still felt like she cheated on him. And, for some reason, he was turning around to talk to her more often. Before, this would have made her heart flutter, but now she would just hang her head in shame.
Adrien knew that he should not have acted any differently, but it was so hard to stay away from Marinette once he knew she was his Ladybug. He couldn't get her out of his head. He pictured that fateful night in his dreams, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her close once more. So, he tried getting to know her better when they were both in their civilian forms. She had always been shy around him, but now she wouldn't even meet his gaze. And he wanted to know why.
Marinette also tried to avoid Chat Noir. She refrained from transforming at all, and planned to stay on the down-low. Unfortunately, evil continued to persist in Paris. When a villain called "The Merman" started his plot to flood the city from The Seine, Marinette had no choice but to suit up. No matter what drama went on between herself and Chat Noir, they were a team. They needed each other.
"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette yelled from the inside of her room.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Marinette? You haven't been feeling well, and you know that you're probably…"
"Don't say it, Tikki, please. I promise I'll be careful. But I have to go!" With a heavy sigh, Tikki transformed Marinette into Ladybug.
As strange as it was, Adrien was relieved when he heard that The Merman was attacking Paris. He hadn't had the chance to contact Ladybug, and he knew that Marinette still had no idea that he was Adrien. He wanted to talk to her, even if that meant they had to fight another akuma.
Ladybug's breath caught when she spotted Chat Noir. He looked the same as ever, but for some reason she felt different towards him. His black leather suit was taut around his body as he ran, showing off his muscles. The same muscles that she got to feel that night.
'Why am I thinking about this?' Ladybug wondered. She shook the feeling out of her head and headed to the battle.
His cat ears were perked up as she approached, and his green eyes pierced her own as they made eye contact.
"Ladybug…" Cat Noir started.
"There's no time for chitchat. We have to stop The Merman, or the people could actually drown!" Ladybug yelled. Her powers of restoration after using her lucky charm defied all laws of nature, but they could not bring someone back from the dead. Cat Noir nodded, but he wanted nothing more than to grab her by the shoulders and kiss her again. Regrettably, that night was a one-time affair.
The Merman was standing on a dock and used his hands to bring water forth and blast anyone that was near. While the process was slow, the heroes could tell that the Seine was rising. In a matter of minutes, the water level would reach the street and begin to flood Paris.
"Ah, the heroes finally appear!" The Merman cackled. "I was expecting you, although I must tell you that there isn't much you can do. I will wash the streets of Paris clean, and drown out the evil!"
Chat scoffed. "I'm purr-etty sure you are the evil, Barnacle Bum!"
The Merman roared and sent a blast of water at Chat, who jumped away at the last second. He then turned to the streets and sent a stream of water onto the civilians, who screamed and tried to run indoors towards safety. Ladybug panicked as she saw a young toddler walking along the street. He didn't seem to have an adult with him, and he looked rather lost. Right before the pressurized water could hit him, Ladybug leapt off the dock and pulled him to the ground, covering his little body with her own. As the water subsided, she raced the little boy to the nearest building.
"Stay here, okay buddy? I'll make sure you find your parents soon." The little boy looked as if he was about to cry, but Ladybug knew that she had to go. She ran back out to the battle to find Chat Noir already drenched head-to-toe in water.
"Aww, looks like the Kitty got wet!" Ladybug joked. Chat smiled back at her.
"I so want to make an innuendo right now," he laughed, dodging another blast of water.
"I appreciate your restraint." The two continued to fight The Merman, but his water abilities were making it difficult to even get close enough to attack him. He deflected each fling of Ladybug's yo-yo with a shield of water, and Chat Noir's claws could get nowhere near the villain. Meanwhile, the water from the river was almost approaching ground level.
"Chat! We need to slow the river down!" Ladybug yelled.
"And how do you expect to do that? We can't just stop a river!"
"No, but we can change its course! Use your Cataclysm on the dam!" She pointed to the dam that held the water from the Seine.
"Genius, my lady!" Chat exclaimed, shooting past Merman to destroy the dam. The whole operation crumbled under his touch, and all the rising water started to flow down the river. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it would help keep Paris from becoming Atlantis for now.
The Merman growled with anger at this delay, and his sailor hat glowed purple.
"There!" Ladybug yelled. "That's where the akuma is!" Chat nodded and made a jump for the hat. When The Merman deflected, Ladybug shot her yo-yo at his head. It almost made contact, but it missed and only resulted in deepening the villain's anger. He closed his eyes and raised his hands in attempt to summon more power. A rumble came from the streets.
"Huh?" Chat questioned. Looking around, he could see that water was now pouring from the pipes of buildings, spewing out from the storm drains, and exploding from fire hydrants underground. Not good.
"Ladybug, I'll distract him, and you use your lucky charm!" Chat Noir pounced from left to right, effectively stealing Merman's attention.
Ladybug was preparing to throw her yo-yo into the air, but something stopped her. Out of the corner of her eye, Ladybug saw the young boy from before struggling against the current on the street. She raced towards the child, scooping him into her arms as she fought against the rushing water. The boy was crying, but he did not struggle against Ladybug's hold. Instead, he buried his head into her shoulder.
"Ladybug, help!" Chat screamed. A large tidal wave emerged from the river, and it came crashing down on Chat. He did not immediately emerge.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug cried in a panic. A life preserver appeared in her hands, and she threw it in Chat Noir's direction. Thankfully, he popped up out of the water, which sent a wave of relief over Ladybug. He grabbed on to the ring and coughed the water from his lungs. The Merman was more focused on raising the river as quickly as he could, so Ladybug had time to help Chat up. It was rather difficult to do so while holding a child.
"I'm going to change back, I have to go!" Chat exclaimed.
"Here, take him with you," Ladybug ordered, passing the child to her partner. Chat took the child away, and Ladybug focused her attention on Merman. The two fought back and forth for a long time. It was an extremely unbalanced fight, since Ladybug had to keep pausing to find higher ground. Finally, after she tricked him into thinking Chat was behind him, she threw her yo-yo in his direction and pulled his hat away.
"No!" The Merman screamed, but Ladybug had already started ripping the sailor hat in half. She de-evililized the akuma inside, and watched as The Merman transformed into a simple fisherman. She swam towards the life preserver, threw it in the air, and watched as all the water magically flowed back into the Seine. Then, her earrings beeped, signaling her own transformation, and Ladybug raced back home. She transformed into Marinette again, and a very pissed-off Tikki appeared in front of her.
"Marinette! You cannot be Ladybug while you're pregnant! You need to keep this baby safe if you want to beat HawkMoth, you know!"
"Tikki, we're not even completely sure that I'm pregnant yet. Besides, Chat Noir needs me. We're a team!" Marinette argued.
"Well, then Chat Noir will need to figure something out, because I won't let you do this," Tikki stated, and Marinette's jaw dropped in shock.
"But I'm his partner! He wouldn't understand why I would disappear for nine months without a word, Tikki." Also, she didn't want to stop being Ladybug. For the past year, fighting as Ladybug had been her escape, a way to counter the shy, clumsy girl she normally was.
"Then maybe you should tell him about the baby. He is the father, after all!"
"No, I won't. I can't. I don't want him to feel pressured into parenthood like I was. It wouldn't be fair to him. We'll talk to Master Fu about it all when we can, okay?" Marinette pleaded. She ignored Tikki's sigh and flopped on top of her pink bed. This whole pregnancy thing was proving to already be more trouble than she bargained for.
At school the next day during lunch, Marinette was starting to feel what she could only assume to be morning sickness. When she thought the coast was clear, Marinette excused herself from her table. Kim and Alix were too busy arguing about their latest race, so they didn't even notice her absence. Marinette raced to the girl's bathroom, unaware that Alya was following closely behind.
Alya had taken notice to Marinette's weird behavior recently, and she couldn't believe it! Marinette had been trying to get Adrien to talk to her for over a year now, to the point where it was almost too painful to watch. And now she was ignoring him? What was wrong with her? As a best friend and a future reporter, Alya was determined to discover the truth.
Marinette kicked open a stall and promptly threw up into the toilet, emptying the contents of her stomach unwillingly.
"Whoa, girl!" Alya yelled, and Marinette gasped.
"Alya, what are you doing here?"
"Mari, are you sick? Should I call the nurse? I can go get…"
"No!" Marinette interjected. "I'm okay, I promise."
"That toilet tells me otherwise," Alya dead-panned. She handed Marinette a hand towel and let her friend clean herself up.
Marinette decided then that she couldn't possibly keep her pregnancy a secret forever. She wouldn't tell anyone who the father was, or why she suddenly got pregnant, but Marinette knew she needed all the help she could get.
"You're my best friend, right Alya?"
"Your question wounds me, Mari," Alya joked, clutching her hand to her chest.
"I mean, if I was to tell you a secret, you wouldn't ask questions?"
"Not if you don't want me to. Cross my heart." Alya made a swooping cross motion across her heart to prove she was serious.
"Okay. Well, I think I might be pregnant," Marinette admitted.
"WHAT? WHO? WHEN?" Alya screamed.
"You promised you wouldn't ask questions!" Marinette pointed out.
"Oh my god, it's Adrien's, isn't it? You've been avoiding him all week!"
"No! It's not Adrien's! And stop guessing, I really don't want anyone to know. But could you come with me to the drugstore? I need to buy some… stuff."
Alya took note of the fear in Marinette's voice and immediately brought her attitude back down.
"Of course, Mar. We can even skip class and go now."
"That would be great, thanks," Marinette said, grabbing Alya's hand to be helped up. The two snuck out the back door of the lunchroom and out of the school.
Adrien watched as Alya and Marinette left school. He contemplated just letting them go, but he had been so desperate to know anything about Marinette ever since their night together. His curiosity was killing him. He was part cat, after all. Without another thought, he grabbed his bag and followed them outside. Adrien was careful to leave plenty of distance between himself and the girls. He followed as they left the schoolyard and headed downtown, then watched as they turned into the shopping district. He almost lost them when they turned that corner, but he got a glimpse of Alya's orange shirt turn into the local pharmacy when he raced to catch up. Then, Adrien opened the door and hid behind a shelf and pretended to be interested in the laxatives.
Alya and Marinette entered the "Family Planning" aisle, and Adrien went on his tiptoes to get a glimpse of what they were buying. He hated snooping like this, especially since they might be buying feminine items. But something in his gut told him that they were up to something.
"Bonjour, Monsieur. Can I help you find anything?" The pharmacist had approached Adrien from behind, almost scaring the boy out of his skin.
"Uh, no, thank you," Adrien said, but the man took a peek and saw what Adrien was holding.
"There's no need to be embarrassed about those, young man. A lot of boys your age need them!"
"I've really got it covered," Adrien explained, watching over the pharmacist's shoulder as Alya grabbed a few pink boxes. He got the man to leave his side and watched as Marinette paid for the boxes at the register. He hid behind the shelves as the pair walked out, then he rushed over to the aisle where they had been. Passing the tampons and the condoms, Adrien raced to the spot where the girls had shopped. Scanning the shelves for the familiar pink boxes, his eyes zeroed in on one specific package. Right on the center of the pink box was a pregnancy test.
"Oh, shit."