Kitty Noire and Coccinello stayed there on the Arc de Triomphe for close to an hour, sitting and watching the sunset, their legs dangling off the side of the monument, their hands intertwined. When Kitty Noire turned to look at Coccinello's profile, she couldn't help but smile. Paris' hero was actually hers…
But with that realization came another one, more sobering and less fun. Kitty squirmed a little thinking about it. It hadn't crossed her mind earlier, in the shock of sorting out her feelings. But now that it was there, floating in her thoughts, it was all she could think about.
"Cocci? Is this… a bad idea?"
He narrowed his eyes at her, worry dancing on the corners of his lips. "What do you mean?"
Kitty's free hand fidgeted in her braid. "Just that we're superheroes. Don't you think it's dangerous? What if it distracts us in battle?"
Coccinello's expression cleared. "Oh, I see," he said, squeezing the hand that was in his. "No, I'm not worried. If anything, I think it will make us a stronger team," and he looked back at her with adoration.
Kitty's glance returned to watching the cars go by below them, a blush rising. His confidence was hard to argue with, so she didn't. She took a deep breath and tried to adopt his calm mindset.
Eventually, Coccinello stood, pulling Kitty up with him. He leaned down to place a soft kiss on the back of her hand and asked, "So when can I see you again?" with a teasing wink that made Kitty chuckle. Such a traditional way of courting for such an untraditional couple. She imagined meeting him somewhere less unlikely, in a bar for example, and him walking her home, and asking her the same question at her doorstep. It made her shake her head in bemused wonder.
"How about tomorrow?" she suggested. "Ice cream?"
Coccinello's eyes grew in delight. "I know just the place. Meet me at the Pont des Artes at 17:00?"
Kitty's eyebrows rose. "What, you're not going to pick me up?"
Coccinello made a face. He leaned close, whispered in her ear, "See, this is why, of all the girls in Paris, you're the one I'm crazy about."
He pulled away, launched his yo-yo into the distance, and winked before flying off to scout elsewhere.
Kitty Noire let herself sigh in excitement before heading home.
When Marinette got back to her apartment, she was practically buzzing. She sat down at her desk to get to work on her bowler hat, but put her sketchbook down as soon as she picked it up.
"Plagg, can you believe it?" she asked, her eyes floating up to gaze at Alya's sexy Coccinello calendar, trying to keep her cheeks from blushing for the fifth time that evening.
Plagg poked his head out of the Cheese-Itz box without saying anything. Marinette was almost too distracted by her own elation to notice. Almost.
She turned to him. "You have reservations?"
Plagg floated onto her desk and shoved two cheese crackers into his tiny mouth at once. He chewed thoughtfully, then replied, "Reservations? No. Concerns? Maybe."
Had Marinette been Kitty Noire, her ears would have drooped. "Uh oh. How come? Is it about the fact that we're heroes?"
Plagg wiggled his head. "Kind of. You've been doing really well this week in regards to Adrien. I hated to see you so low and I was happy that you were finally cheering up. But that being said, don't you think this is all happening rather fast?"
"Fast?" Marinette looked blankly at her kwami.
"Yeah. What I mean is, yesterday you wouldn't have even considered getting ice cream with Coccinello in a non-platonic way. I think it would be problematic for your ability to be effective superheroes if he was just a rebound to you."
"Oh," Marinette breathed, and the air whooshed out of her lungs. Was he? Was she just rebounding on Coccinello? She thought her feelings were genuine. "How can I tell, Plagg?"
Plagg's expression shifted into one of guilt. "I don't mean to concern you, Marinette. You seem surprised, so that's a good sign. Just… be careful."
Marinette tried to turn back to her swan hat, but her energy felt drained. Was she just using Coccinello to help herself get over Adrien? The idea horrified her. Coccinello deserved so much better than that.
Plagg floated up to sit on top of the sketchbook. "Please, have a good time tomorrow. I didn't mean to imply things that weren't true."
But Marinette sighed. "That's the thing, Plagg. How will I know for sure if they're true or not?"
Plagg's whiskers wiggled in thought. "Go on the date. If after that, when you see Adrien again, you aren't cured of him, you'll know."
She nodded, trying to be confident. She hoped with everything inside her that the next time she saw Adrien, it would be just like seeing anyone else.
Marinette took a deep breath, picked up her pencils, and got back to work. The hat wasn't going to make itself, and if Marinette was too distracted by Coccinello to make a hat, she'd be useless in their next battle.
The following morning, Marinette walked to the humanities building, a bit jumpy. She was going to see Adrien, and although it mattered less now than it would after tonight, it still frazzled her nerves. If her heart beat fast just looking at her ex-crush, she'd have to face facts that maybe there was nothing "ex" about it. And if tonight's date didn't make her forget all about Adrien, she'd have to end things with Coccinello just as they were starting. Would that break his heart? Would it make it difficult for them to do their jobs?
Marinette took her usual seat and groaned. Why did she always have to make a mess of things?
The door to the lecture hall opened creakily, and Marinette didn't have to turn to know it was Sunflower Boy entering. She could just feel his presence prickle the back of her neck, like he was some uncomfortable truth she wished she could stall hearing.
As if in slow motion, he walked down the aisle to the front row, and Marinette looked up to watch him go, and —
Her shoulders fell. Nothing. She stared at his little blond head and felt nothing.
Well, perhaps not nothing. But nothing like pining, or wanting, or regretting. She felt some anger, as if he had been a trusted friend who had lied to her, but no more than that. She allowed herself a happy breath. She was over Adrien, for real now. She could go into her date tonight with confidence, without reservation. Coccinello was the only man on her mind, and the assurance relieved her so much, she pulled out her pencil and listened attentively to Professor Fu's lecture.
Marinette didn't have work today, or her internship, so she was free as a bird as soon as History of Modern Fashion class ended. She sighed. It was noon. What was she going to do with all this free time?
An idea struck her, and Marinette pulled out her phone and dialed the person she wanted to talk to most right now. Even if she couldn't tell her the whole story.
Marinette and Alya sat across from each other at one of the wrought-iron tables outside of the Chic Café (stylized as ChiCafé), the bistro on campus.
"This is legendary!" Alya exclaimed, her salad forgotten. "I hope everyone heard that! Marinette Dupain-Cheng is officially over Adrien Agreste!"
Marinette colored, looking around at the other patrons. None of them even heard Alya, but she still begged her friend to keep it down. "It's not like I want him to know I ever had feelings in the first place," she reminded Alya.
"Of course, of course," Alya apologized, ducking her head, the excited grin still smeared all over her face. "I'm just so proud!"
Marinette sighed, taking a bite of her hummus and cheese sandwich. "I'm happy too," she replied, her thoughts drifting back to her plans for the night.
"So what caused this sudden change?" Alya inquired, her eyebrows dancing conspiratorially. Marinette stifled a giggle. Her friend never stopped trying to sniff out a scoop.
"Nothing in particular," she lied. "I think being upset at him helped a lot. It's all I really feel now," she continued, and that part was 100% truth.
Alya touched Marinette's hand. "It might be like that for a while. But you'll grow out of that, too. Meeting someone else will help even more, but I'm done trying to set you up until you're truly ready," she smiled, punctuating that with a bite of salad.
"Thanks," Marinette replied, and both girls ate their lunches in silence for a while. Marinette's thoughts danced to her plans for the night. If things went well, she'd be Coccinello's girlfriend by the time she went to sleep. Or was she already?
She eyed Alya, who was momentarily checking updates on her Kittynello Blog. It sure would be hard keeping her new relationship a secret. She ached to tell Alya all about it, but there was too much at stake.
Time for her to come up with a good cover story.
Kitty Noire's feet landed on the bridge at 17:00 sharp, and she smirked to herself, knowing she'd poke fun at Coccinello for being late. But she stopped short when she turned toward Andre's ice cream cart and saw her date already there, chatting with Andre himself.
Kitty Noire approached the two of them, well pleased that she didn't have to wait for him. "Hey, boys!" she called, and both gentlemen turned to look at her. Andre's eyes lit up in glee to find not just one, but two of Paris' heroes there to taste his gourmet ice cream. Coccinello's eyes went soft and he seemed to melt at beholding her. She sashayed a little closer, booping his nose. "Melting for me so soon, huh? But we haven't even ordered any ice cream yet."
Coccinello rolled his eyes, putting his arm around her. "Sometimes your puns are worse than mine."
Kitty Noire's smile gave her away as she faced Andre, ready to order.
Andre regarded them and cried, "Oh my! Am I beholding two lovebirds?"
Neither hero gave a direct answer, and Andre laughed.
"You two are as crazy about each other as any couple I've seen," and he gestured to the photos of other Parisian couples hanging on his cart. "You know what they say about my ice cream, right?" and he winked.
Kitty Noire's confusion was tangible. "…That it's good?"
Both Andre and Coccinello chuckled at her. She looked at her date and narrowed her eyes. Was he setting her up?
"My ice cream has the power to bring lovers closer together. It's said couples who eat my ice cream together will stay together. That it's magical. I say it sounds like just the thing for the two of you." Andre smiled teasingly at Kitty.
She blushed. Magical ice cream? Was he for real?
"If you don't try it, there's no way to know," Coccinello urged.
Kitty Noire scratched the back of her head. "I don't know about magic, but I'm sure it tastes magical. We'll take some."
Andre scooped a cone for each of them. He handed Kitty Noire's to her first. "Banana for his hair, peach for his lips, and mint for his eyes," he said, and Kitty regarded it quizzically. What did he mean? Coccinello's eyes were blue.
He handed Coccinello his next, saying, "Blackberry for her hair, passionfruit for her lips, blueberry for her eyes."
Kitty Noire peered at Cocci's ice cream. That wasn't right either! Her eyes weren't blueberry at all. At least, not while she was transformed…
Coccinello thanked Andre, his other hand twining in Kitty's, pulling her back to the present. "If we eat these, we'll be put under a magical love spell, you know that right?" he teased.
Kitty shrugged. "Let's see just how strong this magic is. Thanks, Andre!" she called, beginning to walk away.
Of course, Kitty Noire and Coccinello had forgotten momentarily that they were celebrities.
"It's them!" someone shouted from the other side of the bridge. "Paris' heroes! Kitty Noire and Coccinello!"
As if out of nowhere, people appeared and began to run closer to them, surrounding them from all sides.
"Are you two on a date?!" someone shrieked.
"At Andre's!" Another.
"It's Kitty and Cocci, they're a thing!" One voice rose above another, and soon enough the Pont des Artes was swarming, the heroes' eyes blinded by the flashes of cameras from all angles.
Kitty Noire tried to see, to cast about for some route of escape, but there was no way out. "Coccinello, what do we —"
"Here, hold this, please, sweetheart?" he asked, putting his ice cream in her other hand. Then he pulled her close to him, retrieved his yo-yo, and flew them up to the closest rooftop. Kitty held onto him with a smile as they soared together through the air, trying to protect the ice cream from the bracing wind.
Their feet touched down on the building and the Parisians beneath screamed and pointed there, too.
Kitty handed Coccinello his ice cream and he scooped a huge bite with the small spoon Andre had given him. "Delicious. I think I can feel my heart melt as we speak."
Kitty Noire shook her head at him, taking a bite herself. They sat down on the rooftop, as to be smaller and thus harder to see. But the crazed Parisians were still beneath them. The heroes didn't think the ice cream would survive another trip, so they tried to ignore the screaming fans as best they could.
Kitty knew one thing when her dessert was finished: Andre's ice cream was amazing, and deserved the reputation it had. As for the magic? Time would tell.
"Wanna get out of here?" Coccinello asked once Kitty Noire had finished her cone. She nodded and he held her close again, launching them into the sunset, leaving their fans wishing they could follow.
Coccinello took her to the Eiffel Tower, to the very top, where no one could reach them. She held onto his hand, "for balance," although they both knew Kitty could balance perfectly well on her own.
"That was a great idea, Cocci," she told him. "I'd never had Andre's before."
"Neither had I. But my friends have. I knew I wanted to wait to try it until I found someone I wanted to test it out with, though." He played with her hand in his, running his blunt fingertips over her clawed ones. He pressed his palm to hers, marveled at the size difference between them. "Sometimes I wonder how different things would be if I had been the cat and you had been the ladybug," he mentioned idly. "Having claws would be cool."
"I think they're just for decoration," Kitty told him. "I've never actually used them to scratch a monster before."
"You just about scratched Nadja Chamack the first time she tried to imply there was something going on between us," he raised his eyebrows.
Kitty Noire scoffed. "Did not. And she was being a pest. There really was nothing there."
"Maybe she was predicting the future," Coccinello leered playfully.
Kitty Noire rolled her eyes with a chuckle, resting her head on his shoulder. "Maybe."
They sat there, watching the sunset, just as they had yesterday. Kitty Noire took a contented breath. Her thoughts were miles away from Adrien. As she held her partner's hand, she wanted to laugh at her past self. What did Adrien have that Coccinello didn't, in a larger amount? Sure, Adrien had been kind, but so was Coccinello — kinder even than she was. Adrien was funny, but Coccinello always made her laugh. And most importantly, she was comfortable with Coccinello. Not a stressed out, jumbled mess who could hardly speak coherently, like she had been with Adrien.
She allowed herself to relax against Coccinello as those thoughts made themselves clear to her. This, being with him, felt so much more… right.
Once the sun was gone, dipped low under the horizon, and the stars blinked and winked down at them, Kitty Noire said, "Tonight was lovely, Coccinello. Thank you."
She got up from her place beside him; since their hands were invariably linked, Coccinello stood as well, rising to his full height. She looked up at him and that was when she realized just how close they were to one another. His chest was only an inch from hers, and although they had been close together all night, this was something else, something that made her temperature rise and her adrenaline kick in. Coccinello's eyes reflected the starlight, and as he simply stared into her face, still holding her hand, Kitty Noire wondered if he was going to do what she thought he was going to do. With this proximity, she could practically feel his breath softly blowing against her nose. Coccinello leaned in, his hand cupping her cheek, and Kitty's eyelids fluttered closed, her heart pounding in anticipation.
But he took her by surprise when he planted a small peck on her cheek instead. Kitty's eyes flew open and Coccinello pulled away, giving her that same look of adoration he had given her at Andre's. "Anything for you, Kitty Cat. Goodnight," and he squeezed her hand once more before he left, she watching him go until his form was just a speck on the horizon, lost behind a building.
Kitty Noire vaulted home, her mind racing, the adrenaline still pounding in her ears, making her muscles tense. She ran over the events of the night. Coccinello had called her sweetheart. It was enough to make any girl swoon, even a superhero.
She landed in the alley behind her apartment building, calling for her detransformation as soon as she checked to make sure no one was watching her. Plagg materialized out of her miracle stone and Marinette squealed. "Plagg, that was a dream!" she sighed.
"What are you going to tell Alya? You're floating, you know," he remarked, crossing his little kwami arms.
That brought Marinette down to cloud eight. He was right. Cover story time. "Um, I'm thrilled because Adrien is so out of the picture?"
Plagg just shook his head. "We can do better."
"Ugh," Marinette wracked her brain. All it was giving her were replays of the best, most warm-fuzzy-inducing moments of her date.
That was it! She would tell Alya about her date! Just nothing that would give her away. She gave Plagg a wicked grin and his ears fell. "Do I want to know what you're planning?"
"Don't worry, you already know all about it. You were there, too, after all," and she poked the top of his head and winked.
Marinette opened the door to the apartment. Juleka was doing homework at the kitchen table and they waved at one another as Marinette pulled her keys out of the lock. Marinette opened her bedroom door and found Alya at her laptop, headphones in, in super study focus mode.
That was about to change.
"Alya~" Marinette called in a singsongy voice, making her friend take her headphones out, raising a brow.
"Is everything okay?"
Marinette could hardly contain her excitement. "Oh yeah, it's more than okay. You're gonna just about die when you hear this." Marinette gave her roommate a look.
Alya's jaw fell open. "What is it? Is it about Kitty Noire?"
Marinette just nodded, her shoulders all the way up to her ears, her grin spanning her entire face.
Alya jumped out of her chair. "Marinette! You have to tell me!" She grabbed her friend's shoulders, shook them gently.
"I was just casually strolling on the Pont des Artes and guess who was there, getting Andre's ice cream, on a date?" Marinette wiggled her brows.
Alya's eyes grew wide as saucers. "Kitty Noire? Are you for real?!"
"Yes! I saw them with my own eyes!" Marinette insisted, trying not to laugh at how much fun she was having.
"Them? You mean, she was on a date with… Coccinello?" Alya nearly shrieked, and Marinette just nodded again.
"AAHHH!" Alya's hands flew to her face, and she clawed at her cheeks in disbelief and euphoria. "Were they really on a date? Like, romantically?"
Marinette gave Alya a look. "Girl, they were getting Andre's. That speaks for itself."
Alya's expression dropped. "Well, not necessarily, they could have gone as friends, I mean, Nino and his crew did that recently, and —"
"Oh, I guess there was also the fact that they were holding hands," Marinette teased, winking at her friend.
The stars returned to Alya's eyes. She was practically drooling. "Holding… hands?" she asked weakly. "Oh. My. God. This is legendary!"
Marinette laughed then, she couldn't keep it in anymore. She was enjoying herself far too much.
"Please tell me you got photos!" Alya cried, gripping Marinette's arms with serious conviction.
Sweat broke out on Marinette's brow. "No, I didn't get a chance to." Because that would have been impossible, she joked to herself. "I was too shocked at seeing them that I forgot all about my phone!" she fibbed, and it wasn't her worst excuse.
Alya's face fell. "I should have known. You get so starstruck."
Marinette gaped at her friend. "Like you don't?"
Alya tossed her hair. "I mean… I at least would have remembered to get some pics."
Marinette put her fists on her hips. "There's probably some pictures online already. I'm surprised your blog hasn't been blowing up."
Alya gasped. "It probably is! I muted my notifications so I could study for my exam. So much for that, now!" and she raced to grab her phone, her expression shifting into one of wonder all over again. Wordlessly, she shoved the screen into Marinette's face.
Marinette backed away to get a good look. There they were, Kitty seeming a little disoriented, holding Coccinello's hand like it was a lifesaver that would keep her from drowning in a sea of crazed fans. Marinette had to admit, they looked really cute together. It made a little smile creep onto her face.
Alya swiped through, showing Marinette the scene she knew so well, but from a fresh perspective. Shots of Coccinello's hand on her waist as she held their ice cream, of them flying away, even of the tops of their heads poking up from their hiding place on the roof of the nearby building. "They're adorable," Marinette sighed to her friend.
Alya pulled her phone back and clicked about. "I'm gonna reblog all of these photos and save them to the Proof section of my blog. Also, hah!" Alya teased. "See, you naysayer? My followers and I were right the whole time."
Marinette sat on her bed. "Ah, I should have believed you," she told her friend. But in her head, she was dancing.
After footage of the date was leaked, and everyone who hadn't already seen it got the news from Alya's blog, going out scouting without attracting attention became even more difficult for the heroes. Their fans camped out at common battle locations, just waiting for them to arrive, hoping to get a glimpse of Kitty and Coccinello in action, but this time in more ways than one.
Even though Kitty loved the attention, it was starting to get to her. She couldn't go anywhere with Coccinello without the two of them being spotted and a giant crowd collecting to stare up at them and film them, all the while screaming their names as if they were pop idols about to give a live concert. Talk about a mood killer.
An evening or so later, when Coccinello and Kitty Noire were about to leave La Place de la Concorde to try and find somewhere more secluded to hang out, a monster seemed to appear out of nowhere right beside the ferris wheel. All of the fans ran for cover (but stayed nearby to cheer as always), and the press arrived in neck-breaking time, before Kitty Noire had truly had a chance to scope out what this particular monster was.
"OMG, go Kitty! Get it girl! I love you!" a fan screamed from below, and Kitty turned her hearing down to tune out the crowd. She was suddenly irritable. It was all well and good that she and Cocci were together now… but how would they be able to be a real couple if they couldn't even hang out, or go on patrol, without attracting so much attention?
"This monster's gonna be a piece of cake. Then we can go back to where we were, my kitten," Coccinello leaned over, winking at her to break her out of her annoyed thoughts. She gave him a small smile and shifted her focus back onto the monster.
This time, the creature was a giant crow, walking along the pavement, flapping its wings, and pecking at anything that moved. The fans backed up even more, and Kitty wished they would just go home.
"Squawk!" it screeched, and Kitty Noire turned her hearing down even more.
Coccinello brandished his yo-yo, wiggling his eyebrows with excitement. She looked over at him and took a breath, trying to absorb some of her partner's cheer.
She pulled out her baton and as she did so, the crow abruptly took flight, the force of its wings blowing away the fans, the news reporters, even the nearby cars and trucks. Kitty Noire would have gone flying too, but Coccinello wrapped his yo-yo around the crow's leg and held Kitty to himself, the two heroes hanging in midair as the crow continued to gain height, until finally, it stopped flapping and cruised above the scene.
Kitty shoved her wind-blown bangs out of her face, turned to Cocci, and, meeting the steely look in his eye, she nodded.
The two of them launched themselves forward in different directions, Coccinello arcing to land on the crow's back, while Kitty vaulted up and hung onto its legs.
The crow flailed, trying to shake them loose, and Coccinello waited until just the right angle to toss up his yo-yo and call for his lucky charm, the item falling down past his reach and landing right in Kitty Noire's outstretched hand, on which her cataclysm power was already prepped.
The charm was a fishing pole, and it buzzed with the dark energy now long familiar to Kitty Noire. She dragged the tip of the pole gently along the underbelly of the bird, making a long incision where she was sure the victim was stowed.
As the monster and the unlucky charm made contact, the charm discharged in a blinding flash of light; Kitty shielded her eyes as the crow screeched again, beginning to lose its balance with the pain. Coccinello took that cue and wrapped his yo-yo around its shoulders and pulled, as if on reins, slowing their descent, and gently landing all three of them beside the ferris wheel in a flurry of giant black feathers.
Kitty jumped off of the bird's feet right before they touched the ground, and she turned expectantly toward the body of the crow, waiting for it to peel away and reveal the unconscious victim, as it always did.
Coccinello hopped down and landed right beside her, sliding his hand around her and kissing her temple. Kitty let herself melt into his touch for a moment until she heard the crowd uproar in cheers and catcalls. Her shoulders fell and her expression twisted from one of content to anger. She moved away from Coccinello, forcing his hand to drop so that the people would just shut up already.
She bent down to examine the body, as now the bird was almost totally disintegrated, just a mass of black feathers. Kitty Noire brushed the feathers away to reveal the person. He was an elderly gentleman, much older than the usual demographic for possession victims. It made Kitty forget all about the annoying crowd in the sympathy that pulled at her stomach. He was laying on his back, his face in the pavement, and Kitty began to turn him over, brushing away more feathers as she did so, trying to get him as clean of the creature that had overtaken him as she could.
One pesky feather remained at the back of the man's neck, and Kitty leaned even closer to examine it, and doing so, she did something she had incidentally never done before.
There was a small black feather poking right out of the nape of the elderly man's neck, as if he was growing it like hair. Kitty tugged at it, finally plucking it from his skin. It came and she was shocked to find it was much shorter than she had expected. Much shorter than the crow's feathers had been. In fact, this feather looked nothing like the crow's feathers. It was softer, less bristly, with a rounder shape, less oblong. But more shocking still was what Kitty Noire didn't notice because she was too busy inspecting it.
Coccinello gasped above her. "Kitty! Look!"
Her eye jumped down to the elderly man. His eyelids were flickering. Kitty Noire turned his head up to look into his face, her eyebrows knitted in concern.
The man's eyes opened slowly. He blinked dazedly up at her, finally grumbling, "Kitty Noire? Where am I?"
She answered on autopilot, her mind reeling. "La Place de la Concorde, sir."
"…How did I get here?"
"You… you were possessed by a monster, sir. We saved you," Kitty told him, her heart racing. Would the man remember anything from before his possession? About how it had happened?
But her disappointment was almost tangible as the man simply nodded, already fading back into unconsciousness.
The next time Kitty Noire looked up, the physician and the ambulance were there as well as Coccinello, who lifted her gently from the victim to let the authorities take over.
One of the medical experts turned to her, smiling. "He'll be okay. He's just very, very drained."
Kitty nodded slowly, finally able to exhale. Coccinello squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. They were right. This was not like her first fight. No other victims had died since that mistake, but Kitty was more determined than anything to not let it happen again.
"Wait," Coccinello called to the physician, moving toward the ambulance. "We need to investigate the other victims."
The physician nodded and the heroes sat in the back of the emergency vehicle once the elderly gentleman was safely tucked in on his stretcher.
The ride to the hospital was silent, but Coccinello intertwined his hand in Kitty Noire's, resting his head against hers. Since they were all alone back there, Kitty smiled and held him in return, trying to recover from how frayed her emotions were after this discovery. What did this feather mean? And did the other victims have it, and they had simply never noticed?
Kitty Noire and Coccinello went ahead of the stretcher, a nurse directing them to all of the other victims' rooms.
"None of them have awoken, or even stirred. But their pulses are all normal," the nurse told them, opening the first door for the heroes.
It was the young boy, the one who had been trapped in the flaming dragon. Coccinello went ahead and turned the child over as carefully as possible. "Well? Is there a feather?" he asked Kitty Noire, who bent closer to examine the nape of the boy's neck. A mix of relief and concern flooded her stomach as she found nothing, and was about to say so, until she ran her hand against the boy's night-black hair, trying to feel for the feather instead of look.
Her heart tugged as her hand caught on a texture unlike the hair, despite their similarity in color. She pulled against the feather and it came out smoothly; this one was a bit longer than the one which had been inside the elderly gentleman.
Kitty brandished the feather in relieved horror to her parter, and the nurse. Coccinello's brows came together in determination, and the nurse gasped.
The child stirred, his eyes slowly opening. "Huh? Where… where am I?"
Kitty Noire and Coccinello exchanged a look.
After ensuring the boy was going to be okay, the heroes moved to the next room, and lo and behold, as Coccinello had suspected, every victim indeed had the black feather buried in the nape of their neck, and none of them knew anything; they each said so before falling back into an exhausted sleep.
Kitty Noire and Coccinello left the hospital, thanking everyone for their help. They were thanked profusely in return by the hospital staff before launching themselves out into the evening, chatting as they flew over the Parisian rooftops.
"This is huge, Kitty," Coccinello called, and Kitty Noire nodded, the black feather tucked away in one of her suit pockets.
"It's a big achievement. We freed those victims from their endless sleeps. But it's also a big setback. I can't be the only one who was hoping to get some answers once they finally awoke. Now we're back to square one."
They touched down on a rooftop together, Coccinello moving toward Kitty, keeping her from hopping onto the next one. "Yes, and no," he told her, putting a hand on her upper arm. "We did learn something from this."
Kitty raised her eyebrow in questioning.
"We now know that one person — one particular person — is behind this. We don't know who they are, but we know that they are using some kind of dark magic to enchant these feathers. I'm not sure how, exactly, the victims get possessed at that point, but it's more than nothing. The monsters aren't the ones possessing the people. Someone is enabling the monsters, maybe even creating them."
Kitty Noire's head spun. Someone was plotting this? As in, the creatures weren't acting of their own accord, as they had suspected before?
But it made complete sense. Someone controlled the monsters, allowed them to possess the victims.
And that meant that, whoever that someone was, it was their job to track them down, find them, and stop them.
By the time Marinette returned home, it was nearly midnight. She and Coccinello had stayed on that rooftop, talking for hours, bouncing theories between each other, trying to find out a new plan of attack.
Marinette felt so stupid now that they had discovered the truth. How could she have let herself believe that magical monsters who had a will of their own were possessing civilians just for fun? Rampaging the streets to make a ruckus and nothing more?
Of course not. Just as Fu had known to put his miracle stone to use, so she should have known this was about that, too. Someone was out there, she and Coccinello had determined, and they had magical abilities, and they were using them to do harm.
But the question they could not answer was the most important one. Why? Why would they do this? Just to make a mess? It didn't make any sense.
The heroes racked their brains for hours trying to determine the motive, but nothing fit. After that had frustrated them enough, Kitty Noire brought up an arguably more pressing issue: how would they stop this villain? They couldn't just keep allowing this to go on by mindlessly fighting monsters and doing nothing to get to the source. But what could they do? Besides the feathers, all evidence vanished once the battle was over.
Coccinello laughed humorlessly. "It's not like the villain is going to broadcast themselves to us, all like, Kitty Noire! Coccinello! I'm the evildoer in this town! Try to find me and stop me! Like, this isn't a game. This is for real." He put his head in his hands in frustration, so Kitty moved closer to him and sat beside him on the cold rooftop, trying to comfort him with her presence.
"At least we have each other in this fight. Imagine having to do it alone," she told him, so thankful that she hadn't given up her miracle stone after all, that she had stayed being Kitty Noire, for not only Coccinello's sake, but all of Paris. They were so much stronger together.
Coccinello squeezed her hand wordlessly in response.
She put her key in the lock as quietly as possible, too afraid to check her phone, terrified she'd find thousands of concerned texts from Alya wondering if she had died. The door creaked open and Marinette was taken off-guard to see that there were still lights on in the living room. And even more surprising was the fact that the girl in question was right there, sitting on the couch, two mugs of steaming tea in front of her on the coffee table.
Marinette's jaw fell open as Alya fixed her with the same look her mother used to do when she had caught Marinette working too hard. She closed the door behind her and moved to sit beside her friend on the couch. Alya silently handed her the mug and Marinette took a sip. It was chamomile. Her favorite. How did Alya know that?
She looked up to her roommate, her eyes beginning to fill without her permission.
"So tell me what's up. I feel like we haven't talked in a long time. I mean, we have," she corrected herself. "But not like we used to. You're gone so much more often these days, and until later and later hours, and… I worry about you, Marinette. But more than that, I miss you," Alya smiled sadly, finally looking up into Marinette's eyes.
Alya was expecting Marinette to confess to whatever secrets she was keeping, but she didn't expect her friend to cry. Marinette just sat there, her eyes pooling, drinking the tea without saying a word.
What had Marinette been thinking? The last time someone did something like this for her, the last time she felt as though someone was really looking out for her, had been at home. Her mother had surprised her with her favorite cake when Marinette had been stressed about her university entrance exams. She held her late at night when the pressure was more than Marinette could handle, rubbing her back in slow circles as she cried her heart out.
How was it that she could have convinced herself that Alya didn't care about her? That she didn't pay attention? That she didn't do anything for Marinette? Marinette wanted to shout at her past self, wanted to shake her like a rag doll until she got some sense into her.
And adding this revelation to her already tumultuous emotions made Marinette break down.
She put the mug of tea onto its coaster and bawled beside Alya, blubbering everything that she had been holding back, that she had been too afraid to admit to.
"I feel like such a loser in comparison to you, sometimes, Alya. You're such a great friend and I don't do anything for you but drag you down with my reckless episodes and my depressive moods. But you're always there for me, to cheer me up and bring me back to Earth, and I just don't understand why you do it, so I tell myself that you aren't really genuine about it in order to reconcile these things in my head. But I know the reality is just that I'm afraid that one day you'll realize what a shitty friend I am and you'll leave, and so if I say you were never really my best friend after all, it will hurt less. I'm always too busy to check in on you, juggling my gajillion jobs, and you take it like a champ, you stay up for me and make my favorite tea and try and reach out to me, and —" Marinette's voice broke with her sob, and Alya wrapped her arms around her friend to let her ride it out.
"I just feel like such a lame, boring friend," she cried, and it was muffled in the softness of Alya's sweater. "Why would you, Alya the Kittynello blogger, with the amazing relationship and exciting life, want to hang out with me, stupid Marinette who can't do anything right, who spends all her time slaving away, and never does anything interesting? It just doesn't make sense…"
Alya petted Marinette's hair to relax her, and it reminded her of Coccinello. That was another thing, but she couldn't say it out loud. She had an entire secret life that she had to keep from her friend, and surely Alya knew something was up, but she just waited patiently for whenever Marinette would be ready to talk, even though Marinette knew that time would never come. But Alya still didn't hold it against her. How did she do it?
"Oh, Marinette. You're a little silly sometimes, you know? I don't think you're boring at all. Sometimes I wonder why super cool Marinette, who's always doing something because her life is just so exciting that she doesn't have the time to sit still, who landed an amazing internship, while the only reason anyone knows who I am is because I got lucky enough to live in the one city in the world where there are superheroes… Sometimes I wonder why she wants to be my friend. But then I remember all the times you've been there for me, when you humored my harebrained schemes, when we stayed up all night plotting ways to finally get back at Chloé, when you gave me pep talks any time I got insecure about Nino… it's those times that I realize how lucky I am to call you my best friend, Marinette. And yes, you are my best friend, and no, I don't call you that just for fun. I call you that because I mean it, so please get that into your pretty little head, okay?"
Marinette looked up at her friend and gave her a watery smile. She had never thought of it from Alya's perspective before. The whole time she had been wallowing about not being cool enough for her friend… her friend had been doing the same. This must have been what Plagg was seeing that Marinette wasn't. Of course he had been right about Alya; he was right about everything.
Marinette wrapped her arms tighter around Alya and made a mental note to apologize to Plagg, and also to really listen next time he advised her.
"And I know you're busy. It's not something I ever take personally; in fact it's something I admire about you. You work ten times as hard as I do, but I never hear you complain about it. You're one of the strongest people I know, and you deserve the world," Alya added, her voice soft with emotion.
Marinette was quiet for a long time before she finally pulled away from Alya's shoulder, looked in her roommate's eyes, and slowly smiled. "I feel the same way about you."
Alya smiled back at her friend, lifting up her now-lukewarm tea to have a sip. Marinette joined her, and the two girls just drank together and chatted lightly as one day faded into the next.