MIRACULOUS

CH. 40

HIGH LIFE

Paris rooftops…

"Duusuu, come on, everyone's on patrol I gotta back them up!" Mordecai urged the still reluctant peacock kwami. She looked so depressed and he then started to feel sorry for her. "She really must've cared for Nathalie… I can't let that disway me!"

"Can we be friends?" Duusuu finally spoke up.

"Huh?"

"I have been asleep for thousands of years before I was wielded by Ms. Nathalie," she said.

"Wait, you mean no one had wielded you before?"

"I have but none have wielded me for very long…" she said rather tearfully and looked up. "I don't blame them."

"You don't?"

"My ability to create sentient creatures for battle only to be exposed of…" she said. "I think they quickly start to get attached to them and see them as living creatures… Nathalie was the longest to have to wield me. I think it's because she didn't see the sentimonsters as living creatures. At least not at first…"

"Given what this thing can do…" Mordecai put the pieces together. "You may need to have such a cold heart to wield you for that long."

"But I could feel it," Duusuu continued. "When she started to spend time with Adrien… I think that's when she started to care… No… I think it was after that… When he died… Her heart was broken…" she said. Mordecai wondered if she knew that Adrien was still alive. "She didn't want to do that anymore…"

Mordecai finally realized what he got himself into and the kind of power he had and the potential cruelty in the wrong hands. He reached out to Duusuu and petted her with his finger. Unlike the first time, she accepted his gesture.

"Duusuu," he began. "I'm not gonna pretend I know what I'm in for but no matter what, I will never think bad of you, I will not abandon you. So of course I'll be your friend."

"You will?"

"Yeah, bra," he smiled. "No matter what I'll never stop being your friend, I will always have your back, just like Nathalie is right now."

Duusuu then flew into his cheek, emitting a few gentle sobs. After a few minutes, they broke their hug and stared at each other.

"Ready for our first go?"

"Just say the words," she said with newfound confidence.

"DUUSUU, SPREAD MY FEATHERS!"

Mordecai transformed into a blue suit with a blue jay mask over his eyes. White gloves and a feather fan also appeared on his person.

"Oh, yeah," he boasted and made a fist. "Prepared to be equalized, Rigby."

After just a minute to rooftop leaping to join the other, he had an uneasy feeling from his fan. He whipped it out and saw a legion of feathers, waiting to be used. He had a very specific feeling for every feather. He quickly concluded that each was a previously created sentimonster. It couldn't be all of them and knew that a lot of feathers had been destroyed along with the feathers as most of them felt recent, most likely created by Nathalie. There was one in particular that caused him to stop on his tracks. He grabbed that particular feather with the tip of his fingers and gave it a long stare. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was something about that specific feather. He decided that it had to be protected at all costs so he put it in his breast pocket.

Later… Formerly Adrien's room…

Marinette laid on her back after a rough night. She tried to make sense of what she had heard.

Tikki flew over her face, staring down at her. This wasn't exactly the reunion she was hoping to be.

"Marinette?"

*sigh* I just don't know what to make of this, Tikki," Marinette said.

"You want to talk about it?"

"I should ask you the same," Marinette replied. Tikki looked away, not sure if she wanted to.

"Maybe I treated Plagg too harshly…"

"What was that all about anyway?" Marinette asked. "Then again, I don't think I did too much to defend him, so who am I to ask?"

She took a look at her mother's letter again which she had on her hand earlier…

The two were silent again. Marinette looked around the room, which had been pretty much untouched. After her previous visit to Adrien's tombstone and tore her up seeing this room is hers now.

"I wish I asked Gabriel to clear this up…"

"Marinette…"

"Adrien lived a full life," she realized. "We can't bring him back either, can we?"

"He may have been troubled but he already found what completed him…"

"What was it?"

"You, of course," Tikki replied. Marinette, however, only looked sadder.

"*sigh* He didn't deserve this," Marinette lamented. "I was so happy when I finally got the chance but… It wouldn't have lasted."

"What do you mean?"

"I already told you, Adrien should have never been involved in this. Even if he was here, our relationship wouldn't have worked out. After everything that I know and what my fate lies, I didn't want to drag him into it…"

"But you loved him…"

"No, I didn't," Marinette responded. "I thought I did but I was so taken by the smokescreen, nothing more. But we were two completely different people, I am now taking this inevitable path that he won't be able to follow."

"You're wrong…" Tikki wanted to say.

It always broke Tikki's heart having to keep secrets from her wielder. Of course, she was already used to it as she had also kept secrets from previous Ladybugs. There was one she was the most open with before the temple fell, probably the most open to, one particular Ladybug that Tikki was the fondest of and closest to and kept no secrets from. She was closest to her even more so than Marinette. But she perished in battle. Tikki was so heartbroken she had kept her distance from subsequent Ladybugs ever since.

"Let's just get some rest," she said, stroking Marinette's cheek. "You had a long night."

Adrien's new storage…

"Have you informed the master about everything?" Skips asked from Adrien's tablet.

"I have reasons to believe that there's more to it," Plagg said. "Maybe something we haven't discovered at the island. Who knows what may have been discovered."

"Maybe someone has confirmed Plaggs theory," Adrien asked hopefully.

"We're talking about 50,000 years worth of writings and discoveries," he said. "This may take a while if I find anything at all. So in the meantime, I suggest not to do anything stupid."

"Yeah, yeah…" Adrien said.

"Good," Skips affirmed. "Say hi to Mordecai and Rigby."

"I will," Adrien said. He logged out and put his tablet away. He didn't feel like going out on patrol or investigate that night.

"You did what you could," Plagg said.

"I know," Adrien lowered his head.

A few days later…CollègeFrançoise Dupont

"Dig the new look, girl!" Alya boasted while she pointed at her playfully with her palm upward and her other hand on her hip as Marinette came up the stairs to greet her.

"*yawn* Thanks Alya," she replied sheepishly.

"Gabriel put you on a routine, huh?"

"Guy doesn't mess around."

"You sure you okay with this?"

"Alya," Marinette said. "Yes, I want this. It's my chance to prove myself to the world. And besides, this is what Adrien would've wanted."

"Is that why you're wearing his colors?"

Marinette took a look at herself and reminded herself why she chose this look. She wanted to encapsulate Adrien as best as she could while still feeling like herself.

"I guess," she said. "I want to live for the both of us. I know Gabriel misses Adrien dearly, and trust me, I do, I think this is the best way for him to live on through me…" she clenched her fist to her chest. Alya's smile fell as she had just remembered something.

"In that case then there is actually something you should know," Alya said in a more serious tone as she took out her phone. Marinette looked on as she stared at the screen as her friend entered a video channel, hosted by Aurore Baureal.

"What is this?"

"Some rumors starting to spread that Adrien may still be alive," Alya said. "So they started this channel. It's nothing but rumor and gossip with stories of mostly fangirls claiming that they had seen Adrien alive somewhere."

"On this latest take the rumors of Adrien living on a storage unit facility persist as people have claimed that he has gone in and out of it." Aurore approached her face to the camera. "I think we may be getting deeper to the bottom of this, I can feel it?"

"I saw this really cute boy in all black with a hood on but I couldn't really tell if it was really Adrien Agreste," A middle-aged woman said.

"It's true!" a teenage girl said. "He was in a hood but I could see his mouth and his hair sticking out, it's definitively him!"

"Madam, I have had owners living within their storage units, it's really not that unusual," the owner insisted.

"But isn't it illegal?" Aurore asked.

"By the time you have brought that to my suspicion, I'm afraid he has already closed his account."

"Do you have his name?"

"I'm afraid it is confidential and you have no jurisdiction over this information, now get your cell phone off my face!" he said as he tried to cover Aurore's cell phone camera with his palm.

"What? How dare you to…" Aurore was shocked by his behavior. "Do you know who I am?"

"Don't know, don't care!"

"Check out her first video," Alya said as she clicked it.

"Hello, I am Aurore Baureal, sure you all know me from TVi," Aurore said while striking a posh pose. "As we all know, Adrien Agreste who volunteered to save over 50 people on the burning buildings with Ladybug and Cat Noir on the great fire not too long ago and sadly died in the fire, or did he?"

The video then started to show dark and blurry images of a hooded figure wandering around the night and looking around. Aurore spoke in a voiceover as the images were shown.

"If you ask me, Adrien was not a professional firefighter and as far as I know he had no reason to risk his life to help those people, so, my guess is, he faked his death to escape the public eye," Aurore said as he face showed again.

"So if you can join me and subscribe to the channel…"

"That's enough," Marinette said abruptly as she gently pushed Alya's phone away from her and looked away. She walked sternly to the entrance and Alya followed.

"Wait!" Alya said. "Are you okay?"

"I thought that he was going to be at peace…" Marinette growled.

"Marinette?"

"Why can't they leave him alone?" she said. "Too much has been thrown at him and the last thing he needs is some groupie jerk in denial trying to extort whatever there is left of Adrien!"

"*ahem*" Kagami cleared her throat right beside them.

"Kagami…"

"I apologize to confront you in this manner but you were not exactly innocent in your approach towards him."

"At least I'm not trying to dig up his grave and put him on one of those 'skintendo' suits from the movie 'Game Over, Man!'" Marinette said. She looked away and hugged herself.

"A what now?" Kagami asked, raising an eyebrow while Alya snickered at the reference. Marinette took a deep breath and shook her head.

"I'm sorry," Marinette said. "You're right, I'm one to talk. I keep forgetting about that."

Chloe passed right by them with her arms wrapped around her arms protectively. Marinette had to remind herself that this was the Chloe from the present. She stopped in her tracks for a second and looked back at Marinette. With a sad face, she looked away and made her way to class. Alya placed her hand on her shoulder then hugged Kagami with her other arm.

"Come on you two!"

The classroom…

"Good to see you here," Mordecai greeted. Despite that they had already welcomed Marinette back with the party and Gabriel's manor the other day they all cheered and warmly welcomed her back.

Rose jumped her way through the tables to tackle her into a crushing hug. Even though the two weren't that close, they all had a pretty good idea why she did that. Normally, she would be called out for such recklessness, Mordecai decided to give her a pass.

Juleka smiled gently and approached them. She just nodded and gently punched her in the arm.

Sabrina was next to approach her. The two quickly exchanged greetings then Marinette took a quick glance at Chloe, who was still sitting in her spot. She was observing the scene before looking away. She looked sad.

"Chloe…" Marinette was about to talk to her but Sabrina hugged her and shook her head. She took a moment before hugging back and took a peak where her classmates once sat. Ivan, Marc, Mylene, who have fallen to the white plague. She also saw Alix's empty seat, only to remember the different reasons why and was horrified by what she heard. Marinette took another look at Chloe. Quite a few things must be on her mind, the guilt of everything she has done, Marinette herself wasn't all that different from Chloe except she got away with more than she ever had. The weight of being Queen Bee, her recent tangles with her older self, and what she would become also weighed on her mind. But the biggest at that moment was her half-sister Zoe who was supposed to join this classroom but she too succumbed to the plague before that could happen.

"Mmmkay, how about we all take a seat and get on with it?" Mordecai said, rubbing his hands as he broke the awkward silence. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. Despite Mordecai's lessons, everyone in the class was quiet and rarely spoke to him.

Later… After Class…

"Well, that was… depressing…" Kagami said as the girls walked off the classroom. She, Marinette, Rose, and Juleka were together while Alya kissed Nino in the cheek and he ran off before she met up with the other girls with a determined smug.

"All right guys, so I hope you all clear up your schedules cause we're going out tonight, right Marinette?"

"Are we going to tell everyone?" Marinette asked timidly.

"He said you could do whatever you wanted with it, didn't he?" Alya grinned.

"Yeah, but…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well?" Alya prompted Marinette.

"*sigh* you're not going to let this go, huh?" She asked. Alya shook her head, still smiling like a doll. "Fine, Gabriel gave me an advance for my first photoshoot, and will give me the other half once it's done."

"WHAT!?" All the girls shouted, causing a commotion.

"SHHHHHHH!" Marinette hushed everyone hastily, pressing her finger on her lips.

"So, we all go out whattaya say?" Alya popped up and hugged both her and Kagami. "Juleka, Rose? You're coming too!"

"Oh!" Juleka covered her mouth. "I… I couldn't… It's your money…"

"YAY!" Rose jumped, fist-bumping the air. "Come on Juleka. It'll be fun!"

"Sabrina!" Chloe shouted from the distance. "I don't think that's a good…"

Sabrina was running towards the girls while pulling Chloe by the arm. Chloe was hesitant with a look of legitimate apprehension.

"We heard what you're doing we want in!" Sabrina said. Chloe raised an eyebrow at her.

"No, you want in," Chloe said with apprehension as she tried to gently pull her arm off her friend's grip but Sabrina persisted.

"Come on, Chloe," Sabrina prompted. "Now it's your chance to patch things up!"

"I can't…" Chloe looked away in shame. Marinette wasted no time and put her arm and his shoulder. Chloe looked towards Marinette. "Marinette…"

"You can come," she said.

"Really? After everything I put you through?" Chloe asked. "I mean, I know we had the talk at the party but that doesn't mean we're just buddy buddy overnight."

"But it kinda does," Marinette replied. "I told you that I would be your friend, right?"

"*sniff* you remember that?" Chloe asked, wiping a tear.

"Of course I do?" Marinette replied. "I may have done my share of terrible things but forgetting promises is not one of them."

Alya grinned and saw that Chloe was being sincere. But the saw that Kagami was completely silent of the matter, with an appalled look on her face.

"So it's settled," she said. "I say we go for a truce!" she picked Chloe's arm and extended it for a handshake towards Kagami.

"What?"

"You're coming too," Alya said. "I told you I was gonna get you out of that uniform and you're not getting off the hook this time. Now shake!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Shake and call it a truce, eh?"

Chloe still look apprehended but inhaled and kept her hand up. Kagami looked done and slowly accepted.

"Very well," Kagami conceded. "For the sake of this night…"

"Then it's settled," Alya took their hands and kept them together. "Girl's night out!"

The girls cheered.

"High Life" by Daft Punk plays

The girls spent the rest of the evening going from store to store, trying all kinds of dresses and outfits.

Marinette and Alya tried kimonos in a recommendation by Kagami.

In return, Alya recommended jeans, high-top sneakers, and a sleeveless top for her to wear, she seemed to rock the look as everyone gave their thumbs up.

Marinette and Chloe tried several kinds of matching outfits and for the first time, they took pictures together as friends. They took a picture of the two of them together, back to back while tuning towards each other, smiling.

Upon leaving the café for a short snack, Rose and Juleka took their share of pictures themselves. They added drawings of cat ears over their head on the ones doing cute cat poses.

They later went bowling, neither Kagami nor Chloe had any experience with the game. Chloe was able to hit quite a few pins and even a couple of spares. Kagami was unable to hit a single pin conventionally so she opted to throw her ball in a crouching position with her legs spread. She couldn't help but blush as she tried her damndest to ignore the other girls and tossed the ball.

"Aw, Lighten up, Kagami," Alya prompted, shrugging her shoulders. "At least you found a way around the handicap!"

"Shut it," Kagami hated losing and didn't want to dwell too much on the way she did it, as long as it wasn't technically cheating.

Upon leaving bowling, Marinette finally caught a glimpse of Luka, who gave a two-finger salute.

Song ends.

Alya gave her a nudge with her elbow but this time Marinette gave her a frown. One that Alya wasn't exactly used to. Her look softened and went back to Luka.

"You guys go on ahead," Marinette prompted. Waving them off.

"Err… where are you going?" Kagami asked. Marinette turned and placed her hand on hers.

"It's just something I have to do." She went to Nathalie and gave her the shopping bags. "Could you take these home?"

"Be home by dinner," Nathalie said as she got into the limo and drove away. She turned back to her friends and gave them a solemn nod. They all walked away and went back to their own.

"Hey, Luka," she greeted with a weary smile.

"Hey, yourself," Luka said. Then an awkward silence followed. Neither of them knew how to approach the situation.

"Marinette," Luka began. "I know we haven't spoken since we left but I saw that you haven't contacted me…"

"I know," Marinette muttered, trying to make the whole thing as delicate as possible. "I'm sorry but…"

"There's someone else, isn't it."

As much as she tried to avoid it, flashes of a certain kitty flashed on her mind uncontrollably and she couldn't suppress her longing when she saw those flashes. She looked back at Luka and realized she couldn't lie to him, or herself.

"I'm sorry Luka, but I can't pursue this relationship," she finally said.

Luka's face didn't change at first and looked down then looked up at the sky with a single tear cascaded down his cheek.

"I guess I was hoping for too much, huh?"

"Don't say that," Marinette said gently. "You're a wonderful man, Luka. There has to be someone out there looking for someone like you," she assured but Luka simply scoffed.

"Yeah, like I'm just going pull a girl out of some sort of non-existence limbo dimension?" he said and quickly realized it came out worse than he intended.

"No need to be so cynical…"

"I know, it's just…" Luka hesitated. "Things haven't gone so well since the plague. I was already struggling to practice with my band every day while balancing out my work. Then the plague hit, Rose has no living relatives and now I'm lucky if I find an hour a week to work on my music. I just… I guess I was hoping for some sort of solace, something to lean my shoulder on…" Luka realized how much he intended to burden Marinette, so he then turned to her. "Was that too much of a burden for you?"

"I…" Marinette began. "I have been through more than you may think and I would be more than happy to carry this burden with you," Marinette admitted. "But the other boy… I want him even more…" She finally admitted to him and herself. Luka gave her a sad smile and both gave each other the saddest hug of their lives.

Meanwhile…

"You sure you're up for this, Sass?" Cat Noir asked.

"I know where my duty lies," the snake kwami said. "I am Fluff's counterpart, just how Plagg is Tikki's counterpart. Cat Noir smiled.

"Mom's going to attack, no doubt," He looked up the horizon.

"Then we must make haste," Sass said before disappearing into the bracelet.

"Let's do this…" Cat jumped off.

Author's note:

I'm gonna leave it there and I know some may be turned off by how I handled Luka in this chapter but you have to keep in mind that I'm relying on the foundation of the first two seasons. Furthermore, unlike the show, I won't waste your time with the shipping drama so it was something I always intended to be done with it quickly and not dwell on it too much. Seriously, so many fanfictions wasting their premise on shipping messes, I wonder how is it that they manage to drag the living crap out of these prolonged fics with nothing but patted-out melodrama.

Did anyone actually saw "Game Over, Man?" The "Skintendo" reference was a bit macabre wasn't it? If you saw the film you'd know what I'm talking about.

I know that it may already be too many laid-back chapters recently, despite one action chapter in between but Emilie's spell will be complete and her undead army will be unleashed on this next chapter. Stay tuned.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.