You might have to squint to find the connection (lel) between the prompt and the chapter, but it is there. Kinda.
This is a direct continuation of Day Fourteen, so you might want to make sure you've read that otherwise this will make no sense.
Thank you for your continued support. I hope this second part satisfies!
Day Fifteen: Missed Connection
"Now?" Luka cried incredulously. "No, we have to get out of here. What if the akuma knocks over the stalls and traps you inside?"
Marinette tried desperately to come up with an excuse that didn't sound ridiculous or lame, but her mind went blank. She managed to force out a weak, "But—"
Fortunately, a sudden rush of people running from the akuma served as ample distraction. The crowd forced its way between them, and the moment Marinette lost sight of Luka in the rush, she slipped away, weaving against the current, murmuring apologies Luka couldn't hear.
The akuma—cotton candy-themed?—made a swipe at her as she passed a little too close, but she dodged easily enough. Eventually, she found a private nook, inside one of the food carts, abandoned by the owner, in which to transform.
"Let's get this done with quickly, Tikki," she said, curling her fists. "Spots On!"
Suited up, Ladybug swung back to the scene. The akuma—she'd no idea what it went by—was slow but strong. With broad sweeps of its huge arms, it knocked vans and stalls aside as though they were made of paper. Its broken screeches split the air. Large blobs of cotton candy littered the area. But as far as she could tell, the monster didn't have any object on it that could contain the akuma. No weapon, no accessories, no clothes. Just a glob of cotton candy with indents for eyes and a gaping maw.
"Where are you hiding, little butterfly," she muttered, spinning her yo-yo, half-crouched, calculating where first to strike. She lashed out experimentally; the string wrapped around the monster's wrist only to slip through and fall uselessly to the ground, followed by the cotton candy hand. The akuma stared bemused at its hand-less arm then turned a furious glare on Ladybug, shrieked again, and tried to smack her with its other hand. She easily dodged, flipping backwards to land on top of a food van.
So, the monster wasn't indestructible. But a few seconds later, the wrist stump bubbled and stringy bits of cotton candy erupted, forming a new hand. Destructible, but regenerative.
Brilliant.
With a light thump, Chat Noir landed beside her. "Say, Milady, how about we get this over with quickly and then enjoy a romantic date at the fair," he chimed, eyebrows wiggling.
"Actually I'm kind of in the middle of something," Ladybug replied, rolling her eyes. "But I agree about getting this done quickly."
"You only have to ask." Smirking, Chat Noir leapt forward, baton lifted to smack the akuma…
Only for the monster to backhand him and send him flying across the fair into the block of portable toilets.
"That worked," she grunted, spinning her yo-yo again when the akuma turned back to her. "Your powers are just super strength then, huh?"
The wrong thing to say, apparently, as the akuma lifted its hand and shot a glob of cotton candy at her which she narrowly missed. Missiles too? That made things trickier; would the projectile floss have any side-effects if it struck?
Ladybug decided she didn't want to know.
"Looks like I'm going to need some help," she muttered, jumping down behind the van to use it as cover against the sticky bullets. "Lucky Charm!"
A long tube fell into her hands. She looked around for inspiration, but nothing came to mind; clearly they'd have to move the battle somewhere else. Or maybe she'd need Chat Noir, who was now vaulting back towards her.
"Sorry about that, Milady. I'll have to try harder to win you a prize," he said, winking. "What's the tube for?"
"I'm not sure yet," she replied.
The monster shrieked again, and suddenly the van was swept out from in front of them, crashing into a game. Two people who had been hiding behind the stall rushed out, screaming, only to be hit by two blasts from the akuma. They barely made it three steps before they were consumed by the cotton candy and became shapeless, pink forms on the ground.
So, all of the blobs from earlier...were people?
Ladybug swallowed thickly; of all the fates that had temporarily befallen people from an akuma's powers, being turned into a lifeless glob of cotton candy looked to be one of the worst, and she briefly wondered what it must feel like.
Hopefully she wouldn't have to find out.
The grass beneath her feet grew damp, and looking around she realised that the reservoir from the game had burst, leaking water across the ground.
Of course! An idea formed, but she needed more equipment to make it work. "Chat Noir," she yelled. "Distract the akuma; I need to grab a few things!"
"As you wish." He grinned, extending is baton, and turned to the howling monster. "You know, I never cared much for cotton candy. Always reminded me of pink dust bunnies."
Ladybug rolled her eyes, but at least the akuma's attention was now on him. She went to the wreckage of the water-shooting game and quickly tore open one of the guns. Tubes. A pump. A reservoir. And water. These guns would be far too small to do any real damage: not enough range, not enough water. But her tube was bigger, so maybe she just needed to make a bigger gun…
A pump was easy to locate; there was a selection at the inflatable slides nearby. She grabbed a spare one and hooked it under one arm, and ran back to the battle whilst trying to hook up the tube to the pump. The vessel for the water she made out of an empty bottle inside a food van, which may once have held milk or oil. With a system of elastic bands and a plastic clip, she made the shooting system and trigger. Now all she needed was water…
The battle was still raging between Chat Noir and the monster. With no water in sight, Ladybug stashed her makeshift water pistol to help before her partner got himself blasted. With no way of making any real impact, their method was to just run and flip around the akuma, cutting away bits when they could as whenever it needed to regenerate body parts it had to stop fighting so hard.
If she could slow it down for longer, she could get away to go hunting for more water. She vaguely recalled seeing a game earlier with a large vat of water: some sort of dunking booth? Ladybug wound her yo-yo between two posts and shared a look with Chat Noir.
One good thing about their partnership was their ability to communicate ideas non-verbally. With just that look, he nodded and smirked then jumped in front of the monster. After yelling a few more insulting quips, prompting the akuma to go for him, he ran towards the yo-yo and leapt over the string. Moments later, the akuma tripped and crashed into the grass. Then, Ladybug noticed a figure near where the akuma's head landed. A familiar figure.
She choked on her gasp and slammed her hand over her mouth before she could shout Luka's name. At least he had a few seconds to escape while the akuma regenerated its feet. But he wasn't running—why wasn't he running? Was he...was he looking at his phone?
She began sprinting towards him, but her eyes alighted on the dunking booth she'd been looking for, and with it a large vat of water suspended above a chair. She hesitated: go for the vat or save Luka from being transformed into confectionery?
Apparently, Chat Noir hadn't spotted Luka. Or maybe he didn't care about Luka. Or maybe he thought the akuma was more-or-less defeated. But he must have noticed her staring at the water game because he approached it with a jovial bounce in his step and smartly grabbed a sand-filled ball.
"Sure you don't want to stay at the fair with me after this?" he asked, tossing the ball in the air and catching it again. "I'm a great shot—I'll win you lots of prizes! Maybe we'll skip the cotton candy though…"
She saw him square up, pull back his arm to make the shot, and realised what he was going to do.
"Chat, no!" she yelled, but it was too late. The ball soared through the air, smacked into the little target next to the vat, and sent a torrent of water cascading over the empty chair.
With no other obvious sources of water nearby, her plan was rendered useless. She glowered at Chat Noir's bemused face then turned and sprinted, hoping it wasn't too late to save Luka. The akuma had regrown its feet now, and Luka was still just standing in front of it—was he hurt?—and the akuma was lifting its hand to shoot cotton candy at him...
With a shout, Ladybug shot out her yo-yo and knocked the missile out of the air before it could hit Luka. She jumped and landed in front of him, glaring at the akuma, ready to fend off more missiles.
"You need to get out of here," she demanded. She hoped her voice didn't give away her inner panic. "Now!"
"I can't! My girlfriend, I can't find her."
He was lingering in the danger zone looking for...her? Ladybug felt her face grow warm and twisted to glance at him, wanting to say something. But again, her mind went blank, no words were forthcoming. What could she say? That Marinette was safe? Would Ladybug know about Marinette and Luka? And wouldn't Luka just beg to know where Marinette was to find her? And what would he do when Marinette wasn't there?
Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Chat Noir streaked down on the akuma, shouting, "CATACLYSM!"
Destructive magic scratched the akuma, which immediately shrank as the cotton candy congealed into a dark, gelatinous mass. It shrieked again; its voice was lower, thicker, angrier.
"Huh," Chat Noir commented, landing beside them and frowning at his hand. "I thought that would work…"
"If only you'd think more often," Ladybug growled. The akuma seemed momentarily stopped as it got used to its new body, but they didn't have long. And, she remembered, as her earrings beeped, that neither did she. She touched her ears then turned back to Luka. "Luka, get out of here. You have to go. I promise, your girlfriend will be okay. Find somewhere safe for yourself for now."
She thought he was going to argue, but to her relief he nodded and fled. Just in time too, as the akuma was back to attacking them. Its diminished size meant it had to go close-range to deal any damage, and no longer had size on its size. But it was still strong, and its body too thick for her yo-yo to cut through. Instead, the string just got stuck to its arm, which he used to fling her aside with a sharp yank.
Chat Noir leapt over to help her back to her feet. "What's the plan then?"
"I don't know anymore!" she snapped. "You ruined my Lucky Charm!"
"You've said that plenty of times before and it's always worked out," he replied, grinning. The sort of grin that always annoyed her, but this time she wanted to smack it off his stupid face.
"No," she growled. "It almost ruined it. This time it has. And my transformation's about to wear off!"
"Then let's get this done quickly!" Chat Noir turned back to face down the akuma...only the akuma was no longer there. "Uh…"
"I'm going to recharge," Ladybug said. "Then I'll use Lucky Charm again and come up with a new plan. You go find the akuma."
Chat Noir, still not looking the least bit ashamed, nodded and vaulted away. When he was gone, Ladybug dropped her transformation and caught an exhausted Tikki.
"Sorry," she whispered, fishing a cookie out of her purse. "You'll have to eat quickly. I need to transform again, thanks to Chat Noir…"
As Tikki scarfed down the cookie, tired eyes filled with determination, Marinette pulled out her phone with the thought of texting Luka to see if he was okay, maybe tell him she'd been dragged away by the crowd. But before she could open up her messaging app, her screen lit up with an incoming call. Luka.
Tikki was nearly halfway through the cookie. Marinette figured she had enough time to quickly talk to him then fake a bad connection to get back to the fight, so she tapped the answer button.
Before she could speak, she heard a garbled sound, then the phone fell silent. Had she missed the call? She tried phoning him back, but she couldn't get through. His phone wouldn't connect; it just beeped like a flat-lining heart monitor. Maybe he was trying to phone her again? She ended the call, waited, but nothing. She rang him again.
Beeeeeeep.
Recharged and transformed again, Ladybug hurtled through the fair with her yo-yo by her ear, waiting for Chat Noir to pick up.
"All done, Milady?"
"Where are you?"
"By the Ferris wheel."
She ended the call and veered off track, heading towards the wheel. Her heart gave an angry thump, but she wasn't sure what exactly she was angry about anymore.
The Ferris wheel was nearby, and soon enough she found Chat Noir and the akuma engaged in a sort of dance: Chat Noir pirouetting and leaping with his baton spinning above, the akuma stumbling inelegantly after him. She didn't alert them to her presence straight away; instead Ladybug took a moment to assess the situation. The akuma could no longer be sliced through, so they couldn't slow it down by forcing it to regenerate body parts.
But, as she watched them battle, Ladybug noticed something she hadn't before. What looked like a circle on the akuma's chest. Or in its chest: an object that had been inside it all along, but impossible to see beneath the fluffy cotton candy.
So when the cotton candy had shrunk, the shape was picked out in congealed sugar. All they had to do now get it out. But she had to be fast, as Chat Noir no doubt was nearing the end of his five minutes. Ladybug summoned up her second Lucky Charm; a knife fell into her hands.
Perhaps her lack of patience had affected her power. Not a long, convoluted plan but something simple and boorish. A shooting game using bows and plunger-arrows was nearby: perfect.
"Chat!" she yelled. "I've got an idea. Hold it still!"
"Can do!" he shouted back.
Ladybug ran to the archery game and unhooked the sturdiest-looking bow from the rack. She gave it a few test tugs, then shot one of the plunger-tipped arrows to see how much thrust it generated. It would have to do. She found a roll of sticky tape beneath the booth, used by the stall-holder to hook prizes to the ceiling, and bound her knife to one of the arrows.
Loading the modified arrow onto the bow, she turned back to find the akuma running on the spot, unable to travel owing to the fact the back of its head was stuck to a pole wedged between two spokes of the Ferris wheel.
She took aim, inhaled, exhaled, then released the arrow. It surged forward, into the akuma's chest. Judging by the resulting clang, the arrow had exited through the akuma's back and crashed into the Ferris wheel.
The monster blinked stupidly then dissolved away into a disoriented young boy. Ladybug jogged past him to capture the akuma fluttering away from the stabbed object and quickly purified it. Then, with a shout of "Miraculous Ladybug!" she flung the knife into the air and restored the fairground to its previous, undamaged state.
Chat Noir returned his baton to his back then held out his fist. Ladybug apathetically brought hers up to meet it, but didn't join in with his celebratory, "Pound it!"
"This would have been over much quicker if you hadn't been messing around," she snarked, earning a pout.
"Well, if you'd told me what the plan was before yelling at me," he grumbled, folding his arms. "I can't read your mind."
"You shouldn't have been messing around while there was an akuma!" she returned. "You're about to transform back...I'll take care of this." Her eyes flicked to the young boy, holding a tattered cap and staring at them, befuddled.
"Until next time then, Buggaboo." With what Ladybug supposed was meant to be a flirtatious smirk, Chat Noir grabbed her hand and managed to press a kiss on her knuckles before vaulting away. Ladybug groaned and wiped her hand on her leg.
"Right," she said, turning again to the boy. "Let's get you back to your parents."
It took longer than she would have liked to locate the child's parents. The Miraculous Cure had brought people rushing back to the fairground, realising the battle was over, and Ladybug figured the parents had to be somewhere amongst the crowds. With every second that passed, she was aware that Luka was down there somewhere too, looking for her.
Eventually, they found a young couple sobbing by the entrance. The woman fell to her knees and peppered kisses all over the boy's face, vowing to buy him cotton candy whenever he wanted, just as long as he promised never to scare mummy like that again!
It didn't sound like particularly good parenting, but it wasn't her place to say, so Ladybug merely waved then swung away. She found a little alleyway just outside the park and dropped her transformation.
"That was quite the battle," Tikki commented, floating lazily onto Marinette's shoulder.
"Yeah," she muttered, pulling out her phone. Another two missed calls from Luka. "Oh no…"
"You'd better go find him."
Marinette nodded. She held open her purse for Tikki, who gladly zipped into it to make use of the cookie stash, then began heading back to the fair. When her phone rang again, she answered immediately.
"Lu-"
"Marinette! Where are you? Are you okay?"
Marinette paused; she'd never heard Luka speak so fast, so panicked. "I'm fine," she said. "I'm just by the entrance. Where are you?"
"Stay there," he said. "I'll come to you."
The call disconnected. A weird sense of dread washed over Marinette as she waited for Luka to arrive. What would she tell him? How would she explain her absence?
No time to think. Luka was charging across the grass towards her, face pale, hair dishevelled. Marinette didn't have time to even speak as he swept her up into a tight embrace, arms winding around her back like a boa constrictor, lifting her clean off the ground, face pressed into her neck.
Marinette looped her arms around his shoulders, gasping when his grip tightened and she found herself unable to breathe. Just as she thought her ribs would crack, he let go. The relief on his face dissolved into anger.
"Where did you go?" he all but shouted, surprising her, making her flinch. "Why the hell did you run off like that?"
Marinette swallowed thickly. "I—the crowd, I got pulled away."
"I tried phoning you so many times!" His voice broke. "Why didn't you answer?"
"I...my phone died?"
"You answered just now!"
Marinette bit her bottom lip and dropped her gaze. She tried to swallow again by her mouth was dry. "I'm sorry," she whispered, shutting her eyes.
She waited for him to yell again. If he was angry at her before—and Marinette didn't blame him—he must've been furious now. But instead of shouting, she felt him gently grasp her hands. She opened her eyes as he traced little circles over her knuckles. His hands trembled.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. His eyes dimmed, like blown-out candles. "I shouldn't have yelled like that. I just...you disappeared and then I couldn't get a hold of you and I was so worried. And that akuma looked really dangerous; it completely trashed the fair, and…" He shook his head; his body seemed to crumple and his grip on her hands loosened. "That was no excuse to yell at you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Marinette. I—"
His voice quivered, and Marinette realised that he was on the verge of tears. She stepped forward and guided his head to her shoulder, tangled her fingers in his hair. His hands were clammy on her back, holding her desperately as though he was afraid she would suddenly disappear.
"I'm sorry," he said again like a mantra. "I promise, I'll never yell again. Please, just don't—"
A shuddering breath against her neck made her shiver. Marinette stroked his head, feeling like she was about to cry herself. It was almost frightening to see him so fragile, so broken. So scared. She didn't know what he was asking her not to do. Don't run off like that? Don't not answer the phone? Don't—
"Don't leave me," he whispered.
"I won't," she whispered back, kissing the side of his head, just above his ear. "I won't."
