55 Repairing
Bunnix fiddled with her light blue miraculous, with the watch she was given by Ladybug, she flipped it around in her hand and switched it from one hand to another, it was a miraculous, and she was a hero, and she got it from Ladybug, but still … she wanted the watch she already had to be the one.
"That other watch I have, the other miraculous, it is broken." Bunnix stated bluntly the fact that everyone already knew. Her voice revealed her frustration. And everybody else present felt it along with her. "Whoever needs it at any time will not have much use from it."
"We can fix that miraculous." Chat was the first one to speak. "There were instructions in ..." He trailed off and looked towards Ladybug. There were instructions in the book where all the secrets of the miraculous were described, or at least some of them.
"Yeah, We can." Ladybug confirmed. "A broken miraculous can be fixed, even if it got damaged by a cataclysm. We just need …. um?" She looked back towards Chat. They needed a book with instructions because there was no way for her to try for that from her memory.
"You just need the watch?" Bunnix asked the logical question. She reached into her pocket and extracted the second watch. It's silver surface reflected the light from the surrounding fires. She let it hang from her hand while she outstretched her arm towards Ladybug and Chat Noir.
"Excellent." Tuzi exclaimed. "Here we have Ladybug and Chat Noir, they know what to do, they are the guardians of the miraculous. That miraculous can be fixed in no time." She laughed at her own joke, Chat and Bunnix laughed along with her, Ladybug wasn't laughing, she panicked.
"It can really be fixed? Cool." Bunnix stated while she kept her hand outstretched and waited for any of the heroes to actually take that watch. Ladybug stalled the procedure, her brain was going through everything she had read about fixing the miraculous, but she had little faith in her memory.
"Yes, we are the best watch fixers in the world!" Chat grinned. "Aren't we My Lady?" He nudged Ladybug with his elbow. "Especially the magic watches that give you superpowers." He laughed lightly and reached for the watch.
"Yes!" Ladybug sounded as if she was surprised by her own reaction. "We can fix it … just … not right now, we have to … um?" She looked at Chat and her hands flailed aimlessly in the air. "We need to get some ingredients, right, it will take some time and … " She trailed off.
"Of course." Tuzi replied. "Take your time." She laughed again along with Bunnix and Chat. Ladybug forced herself to laugh too, but it was loud and rather obviously forced.
"I'm glad you did not force yourself to laugh at my puns My Lady." Chat muttered quietly.
"Ladybug? And Chat Noir?" She looked towards the two heroes in the darkness. "I would like a little chat with your candidate, one on one. Why don't you two go and fix that miraculous while Bunnix and me have a little talk?" Master Shi proposed.
"A … are you okay with that?" Ladybug directed the question to Bunnix, clumsily.
"Yep." Bunnix replied instantly.
"Well, watch where you're going." Chat teased with a smirk, but he already looked behind Tuzi and Bunnix and saw that the path was clear for considerable distance. Then he took Ladybug's hand to lead her back to the tree.
"Don't worry, we'll be back in no time." Tuzi shot back and everyone smiled. "Now, let's go." She patted Bunnix and the two of them carefully stepped into the darkness, the two floating rabbits directed them with tiny nudges.
Chat was able to see both of them in the distance, but not to hear them clearly any more.
"What were you thinking? I need the Book of Lore for this?" Ladybug whisper shouted at Chat while they were walking away. "I can't do this from memory. I think we need a happy tear and a sad tear and dry it in fire but we need to do something first."
"Don't stress yourself about this, My Lady. That is what you have me for. We are sharing the duty of the guardian, remember?" He grinned again. "We need a token of luck to remove the bad luck I induced with my cataclysm."
"A token of luck?" Ladybug trailed off. She was deep in thought. She stared at the watch in her hand and tried to remember any token of good luck that she possibly was able to remember, a lucky charm Adrien made for her, a lucky charm she gave to him…
"Bug?" Chat poked her. "How can you possibly know that those pearls that are mentioned in the book are tears of sadness and happiness, but you don't know what a token of good luck is?" He grinned and waited for her to remember, he enjoyed that he understood it far too much.
"I don't ..." Ladybug trailed off, she narrowed her eyes and looked around. There was one fire still burning in flames and everyone around it was fast asleep. It looked like a good place to start. Then she reached for her yoyo.
"Come on Bug!" Chat whined when she opened the yoyo and searched inside. "I thought you got it once I saw you thinking and planning." He laughed. His eyes went wide as he watched in disbelief what she was doing and followed her around.
"We have the grain of salt right there." She pointed towards the supplies of the guards. "We only need one grain." She stressed. "And the soul of the earth is right underneath our feet." She added. "But the only thing we need now is ..." She searched in her yoyo.
"Your Lucky Charm?" Chat filled in teasingly. He leaned in and wiggled with his eyebrows, his crooked smirk revealed his white teeth while his green eyes practically glowed in the dark with mischief. Ladybug facepalmed. Chat laughed.
"Lucky Charm." She called and threw her yoyo in the air. She got back a spice mill grinder, red with black spots. She looked at it, surprised, again, but soon everything had made sense. She collected the dust and the salt and leaves and put them into the grinder.
"Okay, so we dusted the watch with the ingredients." Ladybug sighed. "And we have a happy tear thanks to you teasing me." She added as she collected a tear from Chat's face, he wasn't even aware that he shed tears, he was laughing so hard.
"We still need a sad tear." Chat added thoughtfully. He looked around, everyone was asleep, no nightmares, no loneliness, nobody cried after their home, or after their loved ones or for whatever reason people cried in the middle of the night.
"We can't do it without all the ingredients and my time is running out." Ladybug noted while her earrings were beeping their last minute warning. The other warnings sounded while she collected the ingredients and the tear.
"Well, you did spray the magic dust on the watch and you do not need the spice mill grinder any more." Chat suggested. "We can finish this whenever we get the last ingredient." He concluded and awaited her response.
"You're right." She shrugged and threw the spice mill grinder in the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" She called and a swarm of Ladybugs washed over the watch before they disappeared. "I dare say it worked so far." She smiled at the watch, still covered in dust and that single drop.
The next moment a pink light covered Ladybug and her red suit with black dots disappeared. Right there by the fire was Marinette in her pyjama. She caught exhausted Tikki in her hands and reached for a macaron that was stored in her purse.
Chat smiled while he observed the two of them and their quiet exchange. Tikki munched on her macaron and Marinette patted her kwami and smiled. He imagined how the two of them did exactly that after each of the akuma battles they have been through.
"Take your time." Marinette whispered quietly to Tikki. "I don't know for how long will I have to stay transformed the next time. Right now we need another ingredient to fix this miraculous." She sighed and looked at her kwami. "But you are not supposed to know what it is so you can't help."
"I'm sorry that I can't help you then." Tikki responded with a sigh and munched on her macaron really slowly, perhaps intentionally. Chat was holding the watch on the palm of his hand and laughed softly, sometimes Tikki pouted the same way Plagg did.
"Kwami can't know all the secrets of the miraculous. We are fixing a miraculous now." Marinette smiled gently and observed Tikki who took another bite from the macaron and chewed on it slowly.
"But I know that you needed my lucky charm." Tikki teased before she took one more bite from the macaron.
"Uh oh!" Both Marinette and Chat Noir pronounced at the same time and looked at each other in panic.
"And Plagg knows what I say or do while transformed, he even knew what I did when I got hit by the arrow from that akuma … " Chat cut in, his eyes wide, his face revealed how scared he was because of the mistake they have made.
"Master Fu and me were both transformed when we were making the potions and we always sent the kwami away … " Marinette trailed off. In their haste to fix the miraculous they were not planning well. "I wasn't planning well."
"We needed the lucky charm, what else were we supposed to do?" Chat sighed. "But I should have detransformed and bribed Plagg with some cheese to go away and leave us alone for a while." He shook his head and looked at Marinette guiltily.
"Don't worry, neither me nor Plagg will know the details of what you did. In fact, I just knew you used the lucky charm, not why." Tikki admitted. She felt guilty for teasing them in the first place. "The magic prevents us from learning what we are not supposed to know while you are transformed."
"Oh" Marinette smiled again, relieved that they did not do any serious error of judgement, at least not yet. "But were you supposed to know even that?" She scratched Tikki behind her antenna on the head and the tiny red kwami giggled.
"I can know that I'm not supposed to know … " Tikki replied and put the last piece of the macaron in her mouth. Marinette looked up from her kwami, Chat watched her with his gentle eyes.
"Perhaps you should detransform and feed Plagg too. You have been transformed forever." She suggested and looked down at her kwami.
"You're right, claws in." Chat spoke before he thought about it.
"Cheese!" Plagg whined so loudly that several guards who were sleeping around started to stir in their sleep.
"There you go!" Adrien replied and tossed one cheese triangle to his ever hungry kwami.
"Why don't the two of you float away and keep an eye on Peagasus for a while while the two of us work on out problem over here." Marinette proposed with a smile.
"Another piece of cheese and I might consider it." Plagg negotiated while he floated right in front of her face while his black tail swished left and right.
"It is not the time for your games Plagg!" Tikki warned.
"I haven't even used my powers!" Adrien protested.
Marinette pulled Adrien towards the dark, several guards shifted in their sleep.
"We will get more cheese for you Plagg, but please, just go." Marinette begged.
"Yeah, Plagg, we have some guardian stuff to do and you kwami are not supposed to know about it." Adrien continued. "Besides, I only detransformed to feed you, and you were fed." He tried to sound stern (and failed) but Tikki pulled Plagg away and the two kwami disappeared in the darkness.
"So." Marinette followed the two kwami with her eyes for as long as she was able to see them.
"We still have one ingredient missing." Adrien looked at the watch in his hand.
"Yeah, but … we need to talk about something else. What Tuzi said ..." She inhaled sharply and then exhaled really slowly while she observed him.
"What she said about the future, yeah." Adrien scratched the back of his neck with his free hand.
"Yeah, the future." Marinette wrapped her arms around her. It was starting to feel chilli in the night and she was wearing only her pyjama and there was no magical suit to keep her warm.
"I can't believe …. were we even supposed to know that?" Adrien frowned. "Maybe we weren't? Or are we supposed to give it up … on purpose?"
"I don't know … and just to think of it, everything we did, it was all in vain … " She raised her eyes. "But maybe that means you will get your father back? Maybe you will get your family back?" She was cold and tired and she started to shiver, but maybe it was just her thoughts that did that.
"I don't know if I want that … I admit, I'd like to have my father back, and my mother, but he was a supervillain and now he doesn't even remember me and she … my mother … she …. I just … I don't know, okay?" He looked at Marinette and noticed that her eyes were becoming wet.
"I wouldn't mind fighting a few akuma again if you had your family back." Marinette sniffled. "But … " She hitched a breath and tried to calm down, the guilt was eating her out, it was a selfish thing to do, to allow someone to get akumatized just because she wanted her boyfriend to be happy.
"Nah, I'm happy as I am." Adrien smiled and caught a tear that escaped Marinettes eye. He let it drop on the watch in his hand from his index finger. "By your side." He smiled. She blushed and sniffled. "And I do have a family now, perhaps even more than before."
"We need to dry it in the fire." Marinette reminded him and pointed towards the fire that was a few metres away. Adrien tossed it into the fire, suddenly the flame became tall and blue and assumed the form of a mushroom. A few guards opened their eyes.
"Who are you?" One of the guards demanded from the two teens. Adrien pulled Marinette behind him, while she pulled him further into the dark. "There are some kids here that I haven't noticed last night." The guard told to the other man who got up and walked away.
"The last ingredient is time." Marinette whispered to Adrien.
"Yeah, makes sense, the ingredient needed to fix the time travelling miraculous is time." Adrien teased. They took a few more steps away from the fire until they reached one tree.
"Where are Tuzi and Bunnix?" She looked around.
"They are somewhere about their own time travelling business." He shrugged. "Why does she need the training so much, it is not like the two of us were trained, our kwami simply told us what to do and we were there in our first battle."
"Yeah, and some of us did not even listen to all of the instructions." Marinette reprimanded teasingly. "But time travelling miraculous, it is different, there are many things to do, there is burrow, just like we saw and a bunch of other stuff and Fluff can't instruct her while she is transformed."
"Right, he can't." Adrien sighed.
"Besides, I think she is not allowed to make mistakes, since she is using time travel, that would be a disaster, and we did make our own mistakes, remember?" She looked towards him. "Especially me."
"Not as much as me." He grinned. "Talking about the kwami … where are our kwami? Where did they go?"
"Tikki, are you here?" Marinette called, not particularly loudly.
"Plagg, come over, I know you have the enhanced hearing." Adrien called.
But there was no response.
"I think they are sleeping somewhere." Marinette whispered.
"Or Plagg went about to find more cheese." Adrien shook his head.
"They will find us." She replied.
"Yeah, they should know where we are." He concluded.
"So … we wait?" Marinette frowned as she collapsed by the tree.
"Yeah, we wait. We wait for as long as they see fit." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he leaned his head on top of hers.
"I guess you're right." She affirmed and yawned.
"I missed this." He sighed happily and closed his eyes.
"What? Late thirteenth century China?" Marinette teased half heartedly, she was getting tired.
"Nah. Us, falling asleep on anything." He smiled gently.
"What do you mean? You sneaked out each night … " She protested in a light whisper.
"But last night …" He stopped to think, it was really impossible to say if that was indeed 'last night' from any perspective, but he let it be, time travel was confusing and it was something Bunnix did anyway.
"We agreed not to … yeah, I get it." She muttered.
"Let's catch up on some sleep Bug."
"Good night Chaton."
"Good night Bug."