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Part 5 — Volpina

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Ladybug and Chat Noir started running in opposite directions, and as they did, the copies of Volpina's face that they hit vanished into thin air, but new copies kept appearing and following them. Quickly, it became clear that wherever they went, Volpina's face was going to follow them.

Shoot.

Ladybug darted her gaze around. If using the Cataclysm had triggered Volpina to find them, why did the Lucky Charm send them in there? She kept looking as she ran until she noticed that the copies of Volpina that were following her weren't reflecting in the water. Even the face of Volpina on the wall was only following her on the top of the water but nothing was reflecting underneath it. She smirked and stopped to send a quick message to Chat Noir who was running in the opposite direction.

Ladybug: [magicamembert]

And as she hit send, she grabbed the green magicaron from inside her yoyo and quickly popped it into her mouth, her gaze searching for Chat Noir's, who nodded and did the same.

"Power up!" they both shouted at the same time and dived into the water. The copies of Volpina tried to follow them and disappeared as soon as they touched the surface of the water.

"NO! That's impossible!" Lila shouted, her voice echoing eerily around the empty tunnels. But Ladybug and Chat Noir didn't hear it. They knew that they didn't have a lot of time left on their timer so they started swimming as fast as they could to put some space between themselves and the illusions, diving deeper into the water to make Volpina lose track of them.

When they felt far enough away from Volpina, which was many tunnels later, they came out of the water and leaned against each other, looking around and searching for any sign of Lila's illusions. But there was none, and eventually, they allowed themselves to relax as their transformation washed off. Two very exhausted Kwamis came out of the earrings and ring, twirling tiredly onto their respective owner's palms.

"Cheese. I need cheese," moaned Plagg. Tikki was looking at Marinette with a frown too.

"Sorry, buddy, we haven't been able to find Alya yet," Adrien whispered and sighed, his hand running to the nape of his neck.

"Let me send her a message and tell her where we are." Marinette identified their location and sent a text to Alya to ask her to meet them there, but to be careful that Lila's illusions wouldn't follow them.

Alya: [Don't worry, she didn't see us. We're on our way]

All Adrien and Marinette could do was fall to the ground, sit down, and hug their legs. Marinette was trying her hardest not to touch the wall and Adrien noticed.

"Do you think she can sense us if we lean on that?" he asked.

Marinette gave him a sheepish smile. "I don't think so, or she would have sensed us getting out of the water. However... can we really take the risk?"

Adrien nodded and they collectively decided to keep themselves in the centre of the corridor.

"What are we going to tell Alya and Nino when they get here?" he asked after a moment of silence, his hand again running to his neck. "I mean, what are we going to tell Nino, because, well, Alya knows."

"How do you—wait, what?" Marinette snapped her head up and narrowed her gaze as she met his.

He pursed his lips. "It was an accident, she was asking me what—uh, what were my intentions towards you," he admitted. A bright blush dusted his cheeks and the bridge of his nose as he looked down and continued, "I kinda… panicked and made a mistake and she ended up figuring me out."

Marinette's hands covered her mouth, her eyes as big as saucers. "This is a disaster," she hissed in a low whisper.

Adrien pouted. "I know…that's how we ended up stuck in the lift, by the way. She was trying to set us up to have a chat. Sorry about that…"

But Marinette's eyes became as big as saucers as she grabbed Adrien by the collar and shook him. "No, you don't understand! Alya also knows my identity, she's going to be in danger!"

"Uh…wow, that's no good!" Adrien sighed. "And at this rate, Nino's going to find out, too…" He lowered his gaze to the dirty water underneath them, a small pout curling his lips down.

"What's wrong?" Marinette inquired. She leaned in and invaded his personal space, forcing him to look at her.

"It's just… when Nino was akumatised…" He found a small pebble and he threw it distractedly into the water, only to then gasp and look around searching for any sign of Volpina's eyes and face appearing on the wall. But nothing showed up, confirming that the water was safe.

"Look at me, Adrien," said Marinette. She put both hands on his shoulders and forced him to turn around and meet her gaze. "What Nino said that day was… wrong on so many levels. He didn't mean it at all."

"Are you sure?"

Her gaze became much warmer as she smiled softly at him. "Positive."

"He told me that Chat Noir was annoying, especially for Ladybug, and—"

She applied more pressure on his shoulders, forcing him to stop rambling and look at her again. "He didn't mean it. And he had no right to tell you what Ladybug thought of Chat Noir because it wasn't his opinion to give. You know I don't find you annoying."

He looked up. "Uh, except when I tell you that I love you—"

Marinette turned crimson and hastily took her hands off his shoulders as if she'd been burned. "Uh, ah, w-well…"

But he grabbed her hands again. "Were you serious earlier on?"

Marinette's face took an even deeper shade of red. She looked pointedly at her lap and tried her hardest to not look in his direction.

"I w-was," she managed to say.

"About everything you said?"

Marinette made the mistake of shooting a glance at Adrien and her heart skipped a beat, jumped into her throat, and started to beat furiously when she noticed his dazed expression and how red his face was.

"Uh-huh." She nodded at her lap and quickly detangled her hands from his, to hug her frame and start rocking back and forth. But her panic didn't last long because the next thing she knew, Adrien's strong arms were squeezing her to his chest.

"I'm so happy," he whispered in her ear, causing goosebumps to appear all over her forearms.

Marinette stiffened, but he was so warm and pleasant against her skin and his hug was so reassuring that she soon found herself hugging him back. A smile curled her lips as she let out a little sigh of contentment when her nostrils caught a sniff of his cologne. She was so comfortable in his arms that she didn't realise how long they had been in that position until she heard someone clearing their throat in front of them. She grudgingly opened her eyes to see who it was that had uttered such an annoying sound and met Alya and Nino's amused gazes.

"Aw, I knew that my little birdie would've left the nest eventually," swooned Nino; his eyes might as well have had stars in them for the sheer joy that shone through his gaze as he looked at his two friends. Alya was displaying a much more cunning little smile, but she too appeared very excited.

"And it was about time, too!" she added excitedly, causing both of them to turn deep red. "Do you need any food?"

"Yeah," whispered Marinette. "Have you got anything sweet, and some cheese?"

Alya shook her head with a big smile stretching her lips. She took out of her shopping bag a couple of cookies and a piece of Emmental cheese. "Would this be okay?" Alya asked, but then she noticed that Adrien had paled and was looking at Nino with a frown. Marinette looked a little concerned too.

"Do you want us to go?" Alya asked, looking at both. Even Adrien turned his gaze to Marinette, who pursed her lips and moved her gaze from each of them to the next.

"What's going on, babe?" Nino blinked a couple of times, probably trying to make sense of the silent discussion that was happening in front of him. Clearly, he couldn't find any sense in it, so his brows furrowed and narrowed his gaze. He tentatively put a hand on Alya's shoulder.

Marinette sighed. "Alright. It's about time we stopped keeping all these secrets," she muttered. "Tikki? Plagg? Come out and get your food."

"Are you sure?" Adrien asked, his complexion still a little ashen, his gaze searching for Nino's. When Marinette nodded, his hand ran to the nape of his neck. "Well, if it's okay with you… you can come out, Plagg."

Nino's face was priceless when the two kwamis appeared, one from Marinette's purse and the other from Adrien's shirt. He frowned at all three of his companions. "They're… kwamis?" He bit his bottom lip as Adrien's gaze locked again with his.

The blond boy nodded. "Yeah."

Nino moved his gaze from Tikki to Plagg to Marinette to Adrien, his eyes widening more and more at every stop. "Holy shoot, you're Ladybug and Chat Noir!" he eventually processed, his face gaining a grey complexion as his wide eyes met Adrien's frowning ones. "I… I'm so sorry, mec, I had no idea…"

Adrien looked down. Unsurprisingly, Nino's concern hadn't been that Marinette was Ladybug—nope. His first thought had gone to the last time he'd been akumatised. Like Adrien knew it would.

"It's okay, don't worry. You couldn't know," Adrien said, trying to reassure his best friend, but the latter wouldn't have it. He grabbed Adrien by the shoulders and forced eye contact.

A couple of tears pricked at the corner of Nino's eyes as he said, "No, mec, I'm really so sorry, I would never have said—I really didn't mean to… I don't find you annoying, you know that, right?" But he didn't even give Adrien time to answer, for he sucked his breath in and continued, "And shoot, I told Chat Noir that I knew Chat Noir better than him… what kind of an idiot I am?"

When Adrien saw his best friend moving his fists to the sides of his head and pulling at his baseball hat, a sad smile stretched his lips.

Nino begged Adrien to forgive him at least another five times and every time Adrien told him again and again not to worry. He explained to Nino that he had visited Alya that night because he wanted to clear out the misunderstanding that had come out of their phone call; when Nino had misunderstood even further, it had been an unfortunate accident. However, Nino kept repeating that he was sorry until Plagg zipped between them and gave both a look full of mockery.

"Meh, can't you sort out this mess another time? I want my cheese." His electric green eyes moved to cross Nino's gaze. "Plagg, kwami of destruction. Nice to meet you. Do you happen to have any camembert?"

Alya cringed. "We're not that sophisticated, Plagg, sorry. Would Emmental be good enough?"

"Ugh…" Plagg made a funny face. "I suppose if that's all you've got." He took the cheese that Alya had handed to him and started chewing on it.

"What are we going to do, Marinette?" Alya asked while Tikki ate her cookie.

"We know that the Akuma is somehow connected to the walls—"

"—and the floors," added Adrien, but Marinette shook her head.

"Nope, Chaton. The Akuma didn't feel us getting out of the water, it didn't feel us destroying the floor panel to get out of the lift and Plagg could fly through the floors in the Tower."

"But she appeared immediately as soon as I cataclysmed the floor to get to the sewers!"

Marinette pursed her lips and furrowed her brows, pondering her thoughts before answering. "I think she felt the Cataclysm because the power also hit the external walls. Her illusions are somehow connected to the walls and can identify your location if you use magic against them to get out."

"That's crazy. Her power is different from her akumatised form we just defeated earlier."

Alya sighed. "Yeah, it is different. Earlier we hadn't been stuck in the supermarket. Now all the manholes are sealed too, we're completely stuck."

"Shoot," Marinette whispered. She cupped a hand in front of her mouth and started tapping nervously her fingers on top of her lips. "We know that she's got blind spots though. For instance, she wasn't able to follow us in the water."

"How is that helpful?" Nino said. "It's not like you can hide in there forever or get out of the sewers through the water. I think that there are grids to close the tubes and prevent small animals to get in and drown."

"That's true." Marinette sighed. "The only way out that we have from the sewers is through… Montparnasse Tower."

To be Continued…

Author's Note:

Hello there! Here's chapter 5 ^-^ I hear you, I'm sorry for how long it took to update. Unfortunately, my friend has very little time to read and she managed to read this chapter last week only. Hop she can read the next chapter before next Saturday so I can post the ending of my version of Passion before the actual canon version of Passion has been aired !

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter in a comment! I hope you liked it! I'm always open to dialogue, I don't mind ANY type of feedback! Thank you so, so much to all of you who wrote, or will write, a review or a comment on this story! You always make my day!

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