The story below is based on the characters from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. I own nothing of the show. This is purely fictitious and written for the enjoyment of my readers and myself. All rights go to the proper parties.
This chapter starts out pretty fluffy but then moves onto awkwardness. Please forgive me for the awkward moment in this chapter. I'm sorry you have to go through it. Things can get pretty awkward for the duo when they have to keep their identities safe. Also, please forgive the punny title for this chapter. I struggled to name it.
Adrien stands at the entrance to the school waiting, once again, for Marinette. He's early today, excited to start the day and see his princess. He watches the bakery across the street and smiles to himself. Marinette is so close. He just has to wait a bit longer. Then he can watch over her and spend some time with her as Adrien instead of as Cat Noir. His good friend Marinette, his everyday Ladybug, no, his Multimouse. The hero that saved Paris, himself, and Ladybug all on her own.
Adrien doesn't notice Nino walking up to hm, too lost in his thoughts of Marinette. Nino shoots Adrien a questioning look as he takes in his yearning smile directed at the bakery. Maybe he's hungry for a pastry? Nino thinks to himself. "Hey dude," Nino says, "if you're hungry, we have a bit of time before class starts, I'm sure you can make it to the bakery and back."
Adrien shoots Nino a questioning look before smiling. This is the perfect excuse to meet with Marinette and walk her to school. He smiles wide, "Actually, I think I'll do that." Adrien says as he begins to walk away, "See you in class, Nino!"
Adrien runs across the street and straight to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. He opens the door and walks in, he smiles as his nose is filled with the scent of mouth watering baked goods.
He walks to the counter, "Good Morning Mr. Dupain and Mrs.Cheng," he says looking at the two bakers. "Is Marinette up? I was hoping to walk her to school," his stomach growls, "and buy some pastries." He adds on remembering he skipped breakfast in favor of getting to school early.
"Of course, Adrien." Sabine says as she packs a couple of pastries into a bag and hands it over to the boy. "On the house." She says.
"Thank you so much," Adrien beams.
"Marinette should be down any minute. You're welcome to wait here for -" Sabine says before getting interrupted by Marinette stumbling into the room. "Oh, there she is now." Sabine chuckles.
Marinette stops as she notices Adrien in the bakery. She lightly flushes and mumbles, "G-good morning, Adrien."
"Good morning, Marinette." Adrien responds. "I came to get some pastries and was hoping I could walk with you to school." Adrien explains shyly.
Marinette looks from Adrien's shy smile to her mom's hopeful grin. She smiles before saying, "Wonderful that be would." She groans, "Ugh. I mean, that would be wonderful."
Adrien chuckles and guides Marinette out the bakery, holding the door for her, he lightly bows and says, "shall we?"
Marinette giggles and nods her head as she heads out the door and toward the school with Adrien by her side.
"Did you sleep good, Marinette?" Adrien asks, genuinely concerned about Marinette getting enough sleep. He doesn't know how the magic of using too many miraculous could effect her, but having enough sleep is useful against any illness.
Marinette smiles, "I-I did. Did you?" She responds.
"I accidentally slept on my couch," Adrien admits, "but I had pleasant dreams." He smiles.
They walk towards the steps of the school together, happy in each other's company before the building shrinks before their eyes. Adrien startles, pulling Marinette toward him as he backs away from where the school once was. He studies his surroundings, searching for the source of whatever just shrunk the school and all the people inside it.
Marinette steels herself, looking around for a place to transform and an excuse to give Adrien so she can leave. He's holding her arm tightly, keeping her close to him. Marinette fights the blush threatening to creep onto her skin as she searches for the akuma or the sentimonster that caused the school to shrink. If they were just a moment earlier, Ladybug would have shrunk along with it. She needs to be careful.
"We need to find a place to hide," Adrien says. "I don't see the akuma anywhere, but I don't think it's safe to be out in the open."
"I agree." Marinette responds simply. "We can hide at the bakery." She offers.
"Good idea," Adrien agrees. Hoping to get Marinette home and safe as soon as possible. They turn to cross the street toward the bakery and freeze as the bakery and the buildings nearby shrink to dollhouse size. Just like their school.
"Maman! Papa!" Marinette shouts.
Adrien stops her from running towards the bakery and pushes her towards an entrance to the sewers. "We need to hide, Marinette, Ladybug and Cat Noir will fix everything." He says as he opens the entrance and guides Marinette inside. "I know this isn't an ideal hiding place, but the akuma, wherever it is, seems to be targeting buildings. It's not safe to hide inside one, even if we manage to find one at full size." He explains.
Marinette nods as she climbs down the ladder and watches as Adrien follows. She needs to find a place to transform, but she can't leave Adrien until she knows he's safe. "M-maybe we should find a place to h-hide. Just in case the akuma c-comes down h-here." Marinette suggests.
Adrien, trying to figure out how to transform, is conflicted. He knows he needs to be Cat Noir to help Ladybug, but he doesn't want to leave Marinette. Resigned, he responds, "that's a great idea, Marinette. Let's find somewhere to hide."
Adrien grabs Marinette's hand and starts running through the sewers. He stops at a door and slowly opens it, peeing inside to ensure it's empty of any other people or akumas. He opens the door all the way when he sees an empty room filled with lockers.
"We can hide in here," Adrien says. "We can each take a locker." He a locker, checking that it's empty before motioning for Marinette to get inside.
"O-oh, um." Marinette stammers, "you can have that one. I'll get one o-over here."
Adrien looks at Marinette confused. "Okay?" He pauses watching for Marinette to choose a locker.
Marinette looks at Adrien, waiting for him to get inside his locker so she can pretend to fill hers before running out to transform. After a few moments she realizes that he's waiting for her to find a locker first. She smiles awkwardly and walks to a locker. She opens it to find it empty. She looks over her shoulder and smiles lightly as Adrien motions her to climb inside. She does.
Adrien watches as Marinette climbs in her locker. He sighs in relief and closes the locker he had open. He moves towards the door but stops when he sees Marinette open and leave her locker quietly. She stops, startled, when she sees Adrien watching her.
"O-oh, um." She begins, "I'm, uh…" She struggles to find an excuse. She notices how Adrien has moved closer to the door. She returns his curious look and continues, "I t-thought you climbed into your locker."
Adrien winces, realizing he was caught abandoning Marinette. "O-oh, I don't really like to feel trapped." He admits. It's not a lie that he hates feeling trapped. Years of being held captive in his own house has made him claustrophobic to enclosed spaces.
Marinette gasps, "oh, I'm so sorry Adrien. Maybe we can find somewhere else for you to hide?" She suggest, worried about Adrien's claustrophobia, but glad the attention has been taken off of her leaving the locker.
"That's a great idea. You stay here and I'll go find a different place to hide." Adrien suggests, hoping that she'll accept so he can go transform.
Marinette opens her mouth to protest him leaving the safety of the locker room on his own, but she bites her tongue. She needs to transform, and Adrien needs to leave so she can. She nods, watching him intently as he leaves the room.
Adrien sighs as he leans against the recently closed door. He hates leaving her, but Ladybug needs him to help. He steels himself and runs down the sewers to a secluded area around the corner. "Plagg, claws out!" He calls. After a flash of green light, Cat Noir appears.
~With Marinette~
Marinette watches as Adrien closes the door behind him. She sighs and waits a few moments before opening the door herself. Seeing the sewers now empty, she calls on her transformation, "Tikki, spots on!" A flash of pink light appears as Ladybug stands where Marinette once was.
Ladybug exits the sewer and quickly takes a look around. She's stunned when she finds Paris shrunken down to dollhouse sized buildings. Paris has been miniaturized. She looks around and finds only one person still at full size, Cat Noir.
Cat Noir looks around, queasy at the sight in front of him. He catches Ladybug in his vision and quickly runs to her.
"What do we do, M'Lady? I still haven't found the akuma. Whoever it is hasn't revealed themselves yet." He looks to Ladybug, hoping she has a plan for how the can take down an unknown threat.
Ladybug grabs Cat Noir's hand and drags him with her into the sewer once again. "It doesn't look like the akuma has bothered to shrink anything in the sewers. We should be safe down here while we come up with a plan," she explains.
Cat Noir nods in agreement before asking, "so, how are we going to take out this Akuma, Ladybug?"
Ladybug fidgets. She looks all around, searching for a clue, she eyes Cat Noir and her yo-yo. Finally she says, "I don't know."
