Marinette woke up tucked tightly into her blankets. She looked at her clock. Surprisingly, it was 7. Marinette never woke up at 7. She rolled out of bed and look at her pinboard. The pictures of Adrien that scattered it didn't do the trick they usually had in the morning. In the mornings, to make things worse time wise, she would gaze at it for fifteen minutes at the least. She lifted her hand and swiped the pictures of her board and felt her head fall against her bed. She picked up the pictures and threw them in her trash can. She lazily walked down stairs and her mom said, "Darling, why are you up so early?"
"I just woke up," Marinette said. "I wasn't really planning to wake up this early." Marinette yawned and stretched. She walked over to the countertop and pulled cereal from the cupboard above it. She poured into a bowl and sat down to eat. "Mom?"
"Yes, honey?" Sabine said. (Sabine is Marinette's mom's name, it's hard to remember, I know.)
"Can I redecorate my room?" Marinette asked, only half aware of what she was saying. Sabine popped up at this and stopped rolling out the dough in front of her.
"You really want to redecorate your room?!" Sabine had a huge smile across her face. "Yes! You can! But, I'm helping! And, oh my goodness, I'm calling Ciel!" Sabine rushed around putting her dough out to rise and grabbed her phone. "Hello, Ciel… Yes, it's been wonderful… Yep… Oh, I need you to come over, Mari wants to redecorate her room and I know you're good at it… Yeah, I would do more often if Tom would let me, he says our room is perfect along with our store… Thank you so much! See you soon… Goodbye." Sabine set down her phone and rush Marinette to her room. "Get some proper clothes on. Ciel was my best friend since high school, and she hasn't seen you since you were a baby!" Marinette stumbled into her closet. She never thought that a question like that would trigger her mom.
"Okay, okay! I'm going, I'm going!" Marinette said, surprised how energetic her mom had gotten. A knock came at the door and Sabine rushed down the stairs.
"Ciel!" Marinette heard her mom shout.
"Sabine!" said an unfamiliar voice, most likely belonging to Ciel. "Long time no see, huh?"
"Yes, it has been a while," Sabine replied. Marinette, wanting to hear more but also wanting to meet this "Ciel," put on her signature shirt, it was white with cherry blossom flowers, but most of it was often covered by the coat that she wore over it. She slipped on her pink capris and walked down the stairs.
"Hello," Marinette said. "You must be Ciel. My mom was just telling me how close you two were in high school."
"Yes, we were quite a team. You must be Marinette, your mom has so many good things to say about you, and might I say you look just as beautiful as your mom did in high school," Ciel said. Marinette looked at her closely. Ciel had pastel blue hair, neatly braided and swung over her shoulder. Some of her hair stayed close to her face, but Ciel didn't seem to mind. Her eyes were a deep brown. She wore a lop-sided skirt that reached her ankles on one side, but the middle of her calf on the other. She had a long-sleeve shirt on that was huge on the wrist and had the words across it "Brave."
"Marinette, would you mind taking us to your room," Sabine said. Marinette couldn't help but notice that it looked like her mom had lost a few years and she seemed to have the energy of a kid again.
"Yes, Mom," Marinette replied. Really, all she wanted to do was change all of her Adrien pictures to Cat Noir's. She didn't even know how redecorating her room even came into her mind.
"What you think is going to be the theme? Will it be a color, a thing, or an animal?" Ciel asked.
"Probably a mix of pink and cats," Marinette said. "Pink is my favorite color and cats are my favorite animal." Because of Cat Noir, she didn't add.
"Great! Let's get to work," Ciel said, rolling up her sleeves. "First things first, we need to clear out the room, next we go through the stuff organizing what could be used and what should just be thrown out, and since you said a mix of cats and pink, we should choose whether it is black cats or white cats. Other cats wouldn't match the color pink as well."
"Black," Marinette said decisively.
"Good choice," Ciel said. "Black compliments pink a lot more, in my opinion, than white." They started clearing things out and within three hours, Marinette's room was completely empty besides a pile of things they were to keep in the room.
"Mom, shouldn't you be helping Dad?" Marinette asked, the thought coming to mind. They did run and live in a bakery.
"You're right, as always, sweetheart. I'm gonna go help Tom, Ciel. If you need any help, just call me up," Sabine said, and she exited through the trapdoor that led to Marinette's room.
"Well, we should probably go shopping, anyhow. Come on, Marinette, I'm gonna need your help if we are going to get your room the way you want it," Ciel said, already lifting the trap door. "Well, this might take a little bit, so at least get a new bed. I'm sure a black bed to replace your white one will be a good idea."
"Okay," Marinette said, following. Marinette thought this would be fun, but she unhappily found that an akuma was attacking Paris. What timing. When they got to the store, Marinette quickly said she had to go to the bathroom.
"You should've gone before we came, go on," Ciel said in response. Marinette nodded and ran to the bathroom.
"Tikki!" Marinette said. "I've gotta hurry!"
"Alright, you ready?" Tikki's tiny voice squeaked.
"I was born ready," Marinette joked. "Tikki, SPOTS ON!" The familiar rushed up her body, and it felt as if wind flew past her. Her average clothes turned into a tight red with black spotted jumper. She snuck out of the bathroom, making sure no one saw her. Especially Ciel. She hopped next to her partner.
"How's it going?" Cat Noir asked, scanning the ground.
"Not very good. Had to find an reason to leave someone who is helping me with something, so I gotta hurry," Ladybug said, in quite a rush.
"You can chillax," Cat Noir said, "Cause I can work with hurry."
"Good!" Ladybug was already jumping away because she had spotted an akuma. The akuma had taken a shape of a man wearing clocks. Everywhere. Throwing her yo-yo into the air, Ladybug shouted, "LUCKY CHARM!" A hammer that was red with black polka-dots fell into her hands as Cat Noir met up with her.
"A hammer? Are we going to hammer the akuma out of him?" Cat Noir asked.
"No, we're simply going to distract him," Ladybug said, after looking around. "Go grab a clock off his vest, any of them. There is only one clock that says it's twelve, the rest say it's one. Grab any clock but the clock that says twelve."
"On it, M'lady," Cat Noir said, and he quickly fought to grab a clock, he pushed himself and grabbed the clock. He narrowly dodged flying numbers. "Here ya go, M'lady." Cat Noir was already exhausted, and completely out of breath. Ladybug's heart skipped a beat, and she knew why. She had worn out Cat Noir, nearly getting him hurt. (Not to mention by flying numbers that paused time, so they ultimately pause you.)
"Thank you, Kitty," Ladybug said, taking the clock. "Hey! Timer! How do you feel about this?" Ladybug set the clock on the ground and smashed it with the hammer. The akuma looked up, anger flaring in his eyes. "Oh, please make this work," Ladybug whispered to herself. Timer leapt towards the broken clock, and picked it up, throwing numbers at Ladybug to keep her away. She flew backwards, letting him get close to the broken clock.
"You don't deserve to keep your time!" Timer said, holding the broken clock close to his chest. More numbers flew towards Ladybug, and she leapt out of the way, getting closer to Timer. She finally reached him, grabbed the clock that said it was twelve, threw it to Cat Noir who cataclysmed it.
"No more evil doing for you, little akuma!" Ladybug threw her yo-yo up and trapped it inside. "Gotcha." She tapped on the yo-yo, which opened up like the wings of a ladybug and let the butterfly out. "Bye-bye, little butterfly." She waved goodbye to the white butterfly fluttering away. "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!" Ladybug threw the hammer up into the air and everything went back to normal. The akumatised person was a teenage boy.
"Pound it," Cat Noir and Ladybug said at the exact same time.
"Ladybug? Cat Noir?" the teenage boy asked, looking up.
"Are you okay?" Cat Noir asked, offering a hand to help him up.
"I guess so…" the boy said, rubbing the back of his head.
"What's your name?" Ladybug asked.
"I'm Orel," said the boy. "The last thing I remember is asking my dad for some of his time, and when he said he was too busy, I guess I felt some really strong feelings."
"Don't worry," Ladybug said, "We all feel like that sometimes."
"I can relate, my pops isn't the friendless or most time offering guy you could ever meet," Cat Noir said.
"I have to go!" Ladybug said realizing it had been about a half an hour. "Cat Noir, can you take Orel home?"
"Of course," Cat Noir replied.
"Goodbye, Kitty!" Ladybug said, hopping away. She detransformed in an alley next to the store she was in and ran to the aisle Ciel was in. Ciel looked frustrated.
"Excuse me, Marinette, but I've been standing here for a half an hour, waiting for you to get back from the bathroom. I'm sure it takes that long," Ciel said, eyes in a cold blizzard. "Do want my help or not?"
"Oh! I'm so sorry, on my way out of the bathroom, I bumped into a friend and got talking with them for a while, and I guess I lost track of time, I do that a lot," Marinette lied.
"Well, lets at least pick out your bed, so we can put it together in your room," Ciel said, with a sigh. They did and Marinette was happy that Ciel thought that Marinette was telling the truth.
A few hours left of daylight left outside and Marinette and Ciel had put the extremely difficult bed together. A tapping on the window above Marinette's room caught both Marinette's and Ciel's attention.
"Um- I'll be back," Marinette said, opening the window and climbing up. "Cat Noir, it's not…"
"I know. I just wanted to ask if you- you know, wanted to go on a date with me?" Cat Noir pulled a pink rose out and held it for Marinette to take.
"Cat Noir!" Marinette's face became painted with pink. "I-I don't know what to say!"
"How about 'Yes'?" Cat Noir asked.
"YES! Of course I'll go on a date with you!" Marinette responded.
"Marinette, what are you-" Ciel began, coming up. She froze when she saw Cat Noir with Marinette, holding a rose. "Well, well. Aren't you Cat Noir? And Marinette, are you holding a rose? A pink rose, standing for love, not serious, but it's there?"
"Ciel! Uh- Cat Noir was just asking me out on a- a date," Marinette said, with an awkward smile.
"I guess the cat's out of the bag," Cat Noir said, also with an awkward smile.
"No kidding," Ciel said. "So is this why you are redecorating your room to black cats?"
Marinette hid her face as much as she could behind the single rose. "Oh, really, Princess?" Cat Noir asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ha ha," Marinette said, in a nervous giggle.
"Wait a minute- Does your mom know?" Ciel said.
"Uhh-" Marinette couldn't finish.
"I'm getting your mom!" Ciel said, running down. Marinette couldn't stop her.
In less than a few seconds, Marinette was getting bombarded with questions, along with Cat Noir. Neither could get a word in, but finally Marinette said, "Mom, Dad, Cat Noir asked me out."
"My goodness, you're dating Cat Noir for a second time? But does he have the same feelings this time?" Tom asked.
"Yes, Mr. Dupin Cheng," Cat Noir replied. His green eyes shimmered, and knew exactly what Marinette thought. Her dad had been akumatised because Cat Noir had told her he was in love with someone else during a date, ultimately having Ladybug save the day, as always.
"Then we are glad that you and Mari are together," Sabine said, smiling.
"We'll leave you two alone," Tom said. Ciel and Sabine agreed and they left Cat Noir and Marinette alone.
"Well, that happened," Marinette said, clutching the pink rose and leaning against her balcony.
"Hey, it might be for the better. No one likes to keep a very promising relationship from their parents," Cat Noir said, leaning against the balcony next to Marinette.
"Well, what about you?" Marinette asked. "You're a masked superhero, can you're parents even know?"
"Well, I'm a different case, Princess," Cat Noir said, "Plus, it's not like my parents would even care."
"I'm sure they would," Marinette protested.
"Not a chance," Cat Noir said. "And they don't know I'm Cat Noir for their own safety." Cat Noir was surprised at how casually he was talking as if he had two parents.
"Well," Marinette said softly, "I care." They kissed softly, and Marinette heard her parents soft scream of excitement. They were watching through the window. Marinette put the top of her head against Cat Noir's chest. "Mom. Dad. I know you're there."
"SORRY TO RUIN THE MOMENT," Tom shouted through the glass.
Marinette walked over to the window and opened it. "Yes, I am dating Cat Noir, no, you don't have to watch everything I do." She watched them walk away and said to Cat Noir, "So, how about that date?"