Ch 3 – Grace Period

With her yo-yo restored, Ladybug captured the Akuma and purified it. As the beautiful white butterfly flew upwards, Marinette de-transformed and poor Tikki collapsed into her hands like a deflated balloon. "Marinette…" she moaned.

"I know, I know, Tikki, that was too close," Marinette said offering the Kwami two cookies and a macaroon. "But it worked out, right? We didn't de-transform when everyone was still here." Tikki nibbled at her food but didn't respond.

Marinette might not have noticed, but the Kwami knew that they'd stretched the 5-minute de-transformation rule to more than nine minutes. Tikki hadn't wanted to let Hawkmoth learn Marinette's identity, but she was paying the price for overexerting herself.

Stretching the time limit wasn't healthy. Combined with three blows from Chat's Cataclysm, it was an easy way for a Kwami to get sick. Worse still, if they had to transform again, some of Ladybug's powers might be compromised. Tikki could only hope it wouldn't come to that.

While Tikki ate, Marinette sprinted back towards the park, not quite sure what to expect. She slowed when she overheard a sobbing child ask her mother. "Mommy, are you sure Ladybug's ok?"

"Yes, Jacqueline, we saw the ladybugs, so of course she's fine." But the woman didn't look convinced. Further on, Marinette passed more people huddled alone or in small groups. Everyone looked grim. Marinette had underestimated how terrifying it'd be for them to watch their two most reliable heroes fight. Worse still, when Chat Blanc cornered her, there'd been no cameras around, so nobody knew how the fight had ended until the ladybugs restored everything.

People had naturally expected to see Ladybug and Chat Noir back to their usual selves… but there'd been no sight of them. All Paris was waiting with growing dread that maybe the battle had ended worse than they'd imagined. The swarm of ladybugs indicated that Ladybug probably made it through, but no one knew for sure.

"Everyone's worried about Ladybug." Marinette said to Tikki. "Should we transform so they can see we're fine?"

Tikki studied the people's faces through a crack in Marinette's purse. She needed more time to recover… but people needed Ladybug. She took a final look and gave Marinette a small nod. Immediately, Marinette searched for a safe place to transform, but before she could take off, someone was calling her name. Marinette turned to see Alya racing her way. "Marinette! Where have you been, girl? We were looking everywhere for you."

"I… uh… got stuck… at… the bakery. I was there when the fight broke out." Marinette improvised.

Alya accepted the excuse without another thought. "Can you believe it? Chat Noir got akumatized and Ladybug STILL managed to save the day!" Unlike most of Paris, Alya never doubted that Ladybug would win. Marinette gave a nervous laugh. Alya might've thought the outcome was obvious, but Ladybug knew better.

Fortunately, Marinette was spared from responding when Nino ran up. "Hey, did you find him?" Alya asked her boyfriend.

"No, and I don't know where he could've gone."

"Maybe his dad forced him to go home." Alya suggested.

"Yeah, maybe." Nino didn't sound convinced.

"Uh, who?" Marinette interjected. Alya and Nino exchanged a quick glance.

"Uh, well," Alya said, "we saw Adrien right before the rally started, but then he ran off, and…"

"Nobody's seen him since." Nino finished.

"Wait, you mean Adrien's MISSING?!" Marinette squeaked in horror.

"Calm down, girl. I'm sure he's fine." Alya put her palms on Marinette's shoulders.

"Yeah, like Alya said, his dad probably called him or something." Nino agreed. "Wait, there's Lila. She'd probably know." Marinette couldn't help feeling cynical, even if Lila did know where they could find Adrien, she doubted the sly fox would give them an honest answer.

But neither Nino nor Alya knew what Lila was really like, and as often as Marinette had tried, she hadn't been able to rip the wool from their eyes. If it'd been anyone else who'd gone missing, Marinette wouldn't have stayed to sift through Lila's half-truths and bold-faced lies. She would've felt safe to assume they were alright so she could go, transform, and show Paris that Ladybug was fine.

But Adrien wasn't just anyone.

He was the love of Marinette's life, and if Lila knew anything about his whereabouts, Marinette needed to hear it. So, she stuck with Alya and Nino as they returned to the park where the rally had taken place. Considering how much Lila hated Ladybug, Marinette half-expected to find Lila long gone.

But clearly, she'd found the one thing that could make her stay: an audience.

Lila sat surrounded by their fellow classmates, telling them some fable set during Chat Blanc's attack. According to Lila, Chat had been flirting with her during the rally and hadn't wanted to take 'no' for an answer. "It's not like I wanted to be mean to him, but he had to know it wouldn't work out. But then, Ladybug came up and just dragged him off. You'd almost think she was jealous watching him flirt with anyone but her. Anyway, it was right after that that he was akumatized. I can only imagine what she might've said to him that'd have such an effect..."

"Ladybug would never say something to hurt Chat Noir." Rose said, but their was a tremor in her voce.

"Well," Lila continued, feeding off the blind faith of her audience, "I heard…"

"Lila!" Marinette interjected. She was done letting Lila make things worse between her, Chat Noir, and their fans. "Have you seen Adrien?"

"Adrien?" Lila repeated, innocently. "His father called. He had to go home to finish his homework, so that he doesn't have it hanging over his head tomorrow during his fall photoshoot. What didn't he tell you he was going?"

Nino was the first to respond. "Ugh! That old man hates fun."

"Well, to be fair," Lila said. "There was another Akuma attack, and if anyone could defeat Ladybug, it'd probably be her partner. It was probably best that Adrien was gone. If he'd been here and his father found out, he might not let Adrien out of his room ever again."

As the rest of the group kept talking about Adrien's overly strict father, Marinette studied Lila. Everything the fox said made perfect sense. But that was the most dangerous part about a brilliant liar, you could never tell when they were telling the truth. Everything they said was suspect.

Was Adrien at home now? Probably, but Marinette knew as much now as she had before asking Lila. Then, she almost slapped herself in the head. The simplest solution was just to call him. Sure, he might not answer but…

It went to voicemail, so she tried again.

She watched a Cheshire grin distort Lila's features. There was something about it that made Marinette feel off-balance. She saw a similar smile on Chat's face all the time, but there, it seemed fun in an annoying sort of way. On Lila, the same smile seemed sinister.

Again, the call went to voicemail. "What? He's not answering?" Lila asked sweetly. "Here, let me try." Lila pulled out her phone. Holding it to her ear, she casually paced.

A beguiling grin lit up her features. "Hey Adrien! Everyone was worried about you… Oh, you are?" Lila paused for effect, giving Marinette the chance to interject.

"Let me talk to him." She demanded. Lila held up a finger, in a gesture that said 'wait, I'm listening.'

"I understand." Lila sighed dramatically. "Tell your Father I'm sorry we interrupted. Bye Adrien… yeah, you too." Then, she hung up. "He said he was with his Father prepping for tomorrow's shoot, and his Father was getting angry that his phone kept ringing. Adrien sounded afraid that his Father might take it from him altogether."

Suddenly, Marinette was convinced that Lila was lying, and she whipped around to call Adrien again. She had her phone out when Alya stilled her hand. "What are you doing, girl?"

"I… I want to talk to him myself."

"Girl, think a minute. You don't want Adrien's old man taking his phone for a month. Cuz you KNOW he will." Marinette's thumb hovered over the green call button. Everyone knew how protective Gabriel could be. He tolerated no disobedience from his son. One false step and Adrien would be taken out of school and Marinette might never see him again and he'd never learn how she felt and he'd fall in love with someone else like Kagami and… and…

And Alya was trying to calm her down. "Marinette, chill. We know Adrien's fine. We can call him tomorrow after his photoshoot. Everything's ok." Alya coaxed her best friend through a deep calming breath, and Marinette felt better.

Adrien was ok. There was no reason he shouldn't be.

But for no reason Marinette could consciously understand, a terrible chill snaked down her spine. She wanted to talk to Tikki, but she couldn't in a crowd like this. She had to excuse herself. "You're probably right," she said, putting her phone back in her purse. "I should probably get back to the bakery."

"Didn't you say you just left there?" Nino asked.

"I… did…" Marinette said slowly, her mind racing for a lie. "But I promised my dad I'd finish a cake and I left it in the oven… to bake… and if I don't get back soon it'll burn," She took a step back, then another. "So, I really have to go… Bye." She took off running. "See you later," she called over her shoulder.

When she made it around a column where she could talk to Tikki safely (and transform if she had to) Marinette opened her pursed.

Tikki was in tears. "Marinette! Something's terribly wrong!"

She put Adrien out of her mind. "What? What is it?"

"It's Chat! Plagg says he's dying!"

"What?" Marinette was in shock. She hadn't seen her partner since he'd left her alone with the Lucky Charm. "How?... But… But my ladybugs fixed everything!"

She'd been so worried about Adrien that it'd never occurred to her that something might've happened to her partner.

What? What possibly could've happened in the ten minutes since she'd last seen him?

Author's Note: What indeed...