Day 21 - Part 3

"I have to get you two out of here!" Chat Noir said, trying to figure out how he was going to do that without the use of his Cataclysm and with only four minutes left before he transformed back. Beep! Beep! Three minutes. Helpful.

"And you need to stop the villain." Marinette reminded him.

Chat shook his head. "I'm sure Ladybug's already on it. I trust her. You're my top priority right now." Marinette hoped it was dark enough that Chat couldn't see her blush at his concern for her and his faith in her alter ego.

"I'm going to detransform soon." Chat Noir was beginning to panic. He only had two pads left now, and there was barely enough room for the three of them to fit, much less enough for Marinette to turn around so she wouldn't see his civilian form.

He was frantic; Marinette could tell even though she couldn't see him. She wasn't sure she could handle it any better in a situation like that, but she still wanted to calm him down.

"Chat?" Chat Noir stopped his panic for a second to look at her. "I-if you need to detransform, I won't look."

"Really?"

She smiled and hoped that he could see the wink she gave him. "Cat's honor."

"Okay, just… I'll let you know when it's safe, okay?"

"Okay."

Chat inhaled deeply. "Claws in." Marinette shut her eyes tight as a green flash lit up the area. She was close enough to feel the energy from the transformation drop. Okay Marinette. Don't look. Keep your eyes shut. They were in a similar situation to Dark Owl, and Marinette found it no problem to keep her eyes closed then. Why was it so hard to resist the temptation now?

She heard a yawn that definitely didn't sound like Chat Noir.

"Plagg, shhh!" Adrien whispered to his Kwami, hopefully being quiet enough so Marinette couldn't hear. She wasn't supposed to know what a Kwami was. But she did hear and she did know what a Kwami was, but Adrien didn't know that. Marinette stifled a giggle at the insanity of their situation.

"You okay?" Chat asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Marinette, keep your eyes closed! She was mentally scolding herself for even wanting to open her eyes and see him detransformed. A little peek wouldn't hurt, right? She tried to force her eyes to stay closed.

No, Marinette. Stop right there! Don't even think about it! Her eyelids fluttered for a second before shutting even tighter than before. Her head was pointed down; she didn't see his face. What she did see was a pair of orange shoes. Gabriel brand, to be exact. She would recognize the butterfly logo anywhere. Doesn't… Adrien wear those shoes? She scrunched up her face in pensive thought.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Chat asked again.

"Huh? Yeah. Yeah, just thinking."

"About what?"

Your shoes, how I broke my promise to keep my eyes closed, the fact that I might literally know you in your civilian form. "Nothing, really." Chat couldn't be Adrien, though. The two weren't even similar. He couldn't be. Could he?

Marinette's train of thought was derailed, though. "Plagg, claws out!" A flash of green light once again enveloped the box they were in, causing Emma to start crying. Marinette was getting tired of that. And just when she momentarily forgot about her little responsibility, too.

"Cataclysm!" Chat yelled as Marinette opened her eyes for real. Once again, he placed his palm on the bricks, turning them to ash. Marinette squinted at the sudden presence of daylight in her eyes.

The Akuma was still close, though, and narrowly missed the three of them as Chat grabbed Marinette around the waist and ducked behind the school building.

"We have to get to someplace safer than this!" Chat yelled as he looked around for a good hiding spot.

"You have to go fight. We'll be fine here." Marinette needed a place to transform, and that had to involve Chat not being there.

"Are you crazy? No way I'm leaving you here. Ladybug's probably on it already. She's usually there first anyway."

Marinette was getting desperate. "Do you see Ladybug?" She snapped. "You need to go fight. Now. Emma and I will be fine."

"Listen to me, Marinette. I will not let you stay here by yourself. You've been in direct danger I-don't-know-how-many-times. I'm not sure I could count that high! Let's face it. You have a knack for getting into trouble." His expression softened considerably as he looked directly into her eyes. "I care about you, Marinette. That's why I don't trust myself to go and fight without worrying about you staying here. Please, just stay with me. I'm sure Ladybug can handle the situation."

Okay, Marinette. You need to try something else, because this really isn't working. At all. "Why don't I hide in the locker room with Emma?"

Chat arched an eyebrow. "That's not a very safe hiding place."

"Well… what if I hid in the locker?"

"If I were you, I'd be getting a little claws-trophobic by now, Princess." The concern on his face changed into a cocky Cheshire cat grin.

"Paris needs you."

"You need me too."

"I can wait."

Chat was conflicted. He really didn't want to leave her, but he also didn't notice Ladybug out there near the newest villain. He opened his baton to use the GPS tracker on her, but he didn't see her symbol anywhere on the map. I can wait. He swallowed hard as her words flashed back through his brain. Why did she have to be so damn selfless?

She was right, though. Paris needed him. If he steered the villain away from Marinette and Emma, they would be in less danger. But he did have to do something. And fast. He only had three minutes left, once again. Sigh.

"Okay. But if you're not careful, you'll hear about it from me later. I'll check in on you when I have a minute and you'd better be there." Chat warned her.

"Okay, fine. We don't have time to argue about this. You're going to transform back in two minutes."

Chat sighed in exasperation. The day was only half over, and he'd faked a sickness, snuck out of school, spent half a day with Marinette and Emma, gotten stuck in a box of bricks - twice, transformed - twice, and was preparing to fight the newest villain - potentially without Ladybug. Where was she anyway? "Good luck."

Marinette giggled. "Back at ya, kitty cat. Hope you make it back before you lose all nine lives." And if that wasn't enough, she topped it all off with his signature wink.

Chat said nothing more. He wasn't sure he could say anything if he tried. He just turned away and ran off, nearly running into the wall in his stupefaction, but successfully making it outside.

Meanwhile, Marinette had a different problem at hand. She needed to transform. Not that she didn't trust Chat Noir and knew that he could absolutely handle it himself if he needed to, but she was the only one that could purify Akumas. However, there were a couple of problems with that.

She knew that Chat Noir never lied, and he would definitely be checking in on her, supposedly hiding in her locker with Emma. And there was Emma. No way Marinette would leave her alone for what could be hours in a locker room. That wasn't happening.

All this worrying momentarily distracted her from thinking about how Chat Noir might be Adrien Agreste, the boy she had obsessed over for the past two years. The boy around whom she couldn't form a coherent sentence, who seemed to multiply her clumsiness by thousands, whose entire schedule was in her room, surrounded by dozens of pictures of him? Yeah, that boy.

Stop it, Marinette. This isn't what you should be focusing on right now! Marinette was getting used to mentally yelling at herself by now. She had been doing it a whole ton in the past few days. A plan, a plan; I need a plan. And fast. I have to go help Chat with the Akuma. She had one chance. She wasn't sure it would work, but her parents surely would have gotten wind of the Akuma right outside their house by now. It was hard to miss. So…

Marinette ran to her locker, Emma in her arms, and gently placed the latter on the shelf usually reserved for her extra books. She closed the door and frantically looked around, making sure no one was in close enough proximity to endanger her transformation. "Tikki, you can come out."

"What's your plan, Marinette?" The Kwami flew out of her hiding place in Marinette's handmade purse, grateful to be able to talk to her chosen again.

"I need Ladybug. I have an idea." Marinette pulled a sheet of blank paper out of her school bag, scribbling a note to Chat Noir.

'Chat,

Ladybug told me to hide elsewhere because the locker room wasn't safe. She took Emma to my parents' place.

-M'

Marinette took the note and left it sticking out of the locker vent so Chat would be sure to find it, should he come back in search of her and Emma.

"Okay. Tikki, spots on!" Marinette transformed into Ladybug, setting the next part of her plan in action. She went back to her locker and grabbed Emma, running out of the school and straight to the patisserie where her parents were. Going to the door, she noticed that they were hiding. Probably in the back room, as per their Akuma safety rules. But luckily, Chat had steered the villain away from them.

Ladybug knocked on the door as loud as she could, causing Tom to peek his head out. She waved at her father and smiled, miming to him that she wanted to come in. Tom gave her a thumbs up before ducking back down to tell Sabine why he was leaving. A few seconds later, he appeared, unlocking the door and letting the superheroine inside.

"Hello, Da- uh, Mssr. Dupain."

"Hello, Ladybug. What brings you here?"

"Chat Noir entrusted this baby to your daughter, Marinette, is that correct?"

Tom looked at Emma and nodded. "Yes, that's right."

Ladybug slowly reiterated her carefully thought out plan to her father. "I took Marinette to a safe place with some of her other classmates, but I thought it would be wise to leave Emma with the two of you instead. Can you take care of her until Chat Noir and I have purified the Akuma?"

Tom took a heroic stance. "Anything to help you do your job, Ladybug!"

"Thank you, monsieur."

"Anytime."

Ladybug left, checking her GPS for Chat's signal. "Tour Montparnasse, huh? Haven't been there in a while." She swung off into the distance on her yoyo, hoping it would be a rather short fight. She was wrong, of course.