Chapter 5

Milady: are you ok?

Kitty: she's just stealing Plagg's cheesepuffs for now

Milady: im so so sorry!

Kitty: he says to tell you that he almost cataclysmed her but then changed his mind because you probably wouldn't make more cheesepuffs

Milady: I would have made him a mountain of cheesepuffs if he had

Kitty: barely left Paris and already in bad trouble.

Milady: careful, don't tell me where you are, ok?

Kitty: I'll try

Milady: Stay safe. Keep an eye on her.

Kitty: can't I just come home now?

Milady: I wouldn't be opposed

Kitty: I know I know.

Marinette tried hard not to extrapolate any information about Chat Noir's identity from this string of texts. He was usually a lot more careful about guarding his personal life; he must have been really worked up.

Kitty: I gotta go back.

Marinette sent him one of the dozen selfies she'd taken before de-transforming, knowing they would give him courage.

Milady: u got this

"Marinette? Are you ready?" She quickly stashed her phone in her pocket and smiled at Kagami.

"Yep. Just checking in on a friend."

Kagami nodded, then pulled her own fencing mask down over her face. Marinette mirrored the image.

"Now, let's practice this again," Kagami continued, "extend the back leg and foot at a right angle. Ready, lunge, parry."

Marinette lunged and parried, lunged and parried, and lunged again until her body was sore. Kagami issued instructions, she followed. "Are you sure you want to keep going?" Kagami would ask and Marinette would just nod and lift her foil for another round. "You sure are dedicated," Kagami finally gasped, holding up her hand and removing her mask. "I need a break."

The two girls sat on the bench in Kagami's gym and sipped from their water bottles. "You've really improved this last month. I'm duly impressed."

"Thanks, Kagami. And thanks again for teaching me."

"I have to admit, when you first asked me to train you in fencing, I was surprised. I thought you'd have asked Adrien."

Marinette laughed a little. "Yeah, right."

"Why didn't you ask him?" Kagami pressed in her no-nonsense way.

Marinette had learned, through the course of the last month spending more time with Kagami, that the simple truth was always the best. "I didn't want you to think I was moving in on your guy. Also, I wanted to train with the best fencer in Paris."

Kagami smiled, "Thank you," but then she frowned, "but he's not my guy."

Marinette's mouth fell open. "Wait, what?"

"I don't think he ever was."

Marinette still looked like a fish. "But, you've been going out for, like, two months! He told me he was in love with you!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? He said he was in love with me?"

Marinette scanned her memory, ready to retort hotly, but then she realized something, "Come to think of it, he didn't say your name. He just said 'the girl I love.' I assumed he meant you."

Kagami smiled a little, "No, he didn't mean me."

"I'm sorry, Kagami."

"It's ok. We talked, and the tournament today helped me realize what we are truly meant to be—partners."

The word 'partners' brought Marinette up short. She couldn't quite formulate the sentence for several moments, before finally whispering, "How do you know that's all you're meant to be?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do you know if your partner is best just left as a partner? How do you know when it's not supposed to be something more?"

Kagami looked at Marinette quizzically. "I'm still not exactly sure what you're asking."

"I have a partner, and sometimes I wonder if he means more to me than just… a partner. I know he would like it to be more, but I'm worried about hurting him and our partnership."

Kagami thought about that for a bit. "Well, with Adrien, I tried. I tried to make it not-a-partnership. But it was never so great. When we're fencing, though, it's like we drive the other person to be better. When we were together without the masks on, it was always uncomfortable." Again, Kagami used a word that made Marinette stutter. "I don't know what it would have been like if it had been good. I suppose it would have felt right, and open, and free. If it doesn't feel right, then it's probably best to just stay partners."

Marinette ruminated on that as the girls cleaned up their fencing gear and bid goodnight to each other. Kagami's mother ordered the car to take Marinette home. Marinette was still lost in deep thought when she climbed into bed an hour later. She pulled out the picture of Adrien tucked under her bed and wondered. For the first time since she'd met him, she felt like her heart was being ripped in two. She was still deeply smitten by Adrien, and she knew she always would be. But then there was this silly cat who drove her crazy, but she couldn't live without.

She pulled out her silver phone and slid it open.

Milady: Checking in. Quiet night. What u up to?

A minute later, he sent her a photo of the bottom half of his face with three passionfruit macarons stuffed in his mouth.

The line of people stretched around the corner and out of sight. Adrien wiggled his toes uncomfortably in the Gabriel shoes he'd been assigned for the day. He'd have to ask Marinette to make him something better, someday. Today's meet-and-greet was going to be painful.

The limousine brought him right to the barrier and someone opened the door to reveal the plush red carpet. He got out and waved serenely to the horde of cameras and screaming fans. Lila clambered out of the limo behind him and bumped into his back. Trying to be a gentleman, he took her hand and whispered, "Just smile and wave." She narrowed her eyes and pumped her hand in the air, but the paparazzi called his name, and his name alone.

They worked their way to the glittering white storefront and inside the building. The room was crammed with reporters and Gabriel board members. Once the hubbub from the arrival settled down, Adrien and Lila were posed on chairs for a press conference.

Most of the questions were directed at the board members, and asked about the company, upcoming business ventures, what they were planning on showing in the fall Fashion Week. Adrien let his mind wander. He wondered what Ladybug was doing right now. Well, she wouldn't be Ladybug at this moment, most likely. She'd be… whoever she was… and probably doing… something amazing. He tried to picture her without a mask, maybe her hair done up in an elegant knot, wearing something regal. She would have that knowing smile and those blazing bluebell eyes and she would say his name with such care that it would make his legs melt.

His name. Someone just said his name. "Oh yeah, Adrien and I are very close," Lila was saying from beside him. She reached and squeezed his bicep.

He pulled it away. "Well, not that close," he snapped before he thought through his actions. "I mean, we go to school together and have done a couple photoshoots together, but we're just… friends," he added quickly. The word "friends" may have contained too much venom. He tried to counter it by smiling at the press corps.

Lila's voice went sugary sweet. "Oh honey, you don't have to be so modest."

He narrowed his eyes at her and whispered at her, covering the microphone, "Don't do this here." But she plowed ahead.

"It's true that Adrien's schedule is tight, but, the other day, he asked me to be his—"

"We're not dating!" he blurted loudly. Her eyes flew open and a gasp rang through the crowd, who immediately started clicking their cameras more furiously. "We never were! My Father asked me to do some modelling with Miss Rossi, and so I did. We do attend the same school, but other than that, we are not together." Lila took a deep breath, readying herself to say something.

Adrien wouldn't have said it if it weren't for the smug little sneer on Lila's face. "Besides, there's someone else."

The reporters all started crowding in, eager to get this juicy gossip to their viewers before anyone could steal it from them. "Who?" "Who?" "Who?" they yelled over each other.

He played shy. "I… left my heart in Paris." He hoped this open-ended response would appease his Father. Perhaps, by leaving room for all the girls in Paris to wonder if it was them, the fact that he'd just snubbed Gabriel's handpicked number two could be overlooked.

He deflected the remaining questions, which eventually returned to the board members. Lila looked poised to speak, but nobody asked her anything further. By the end of the hour of horror, her shoulders were rounded and her jaw was tight from grinding her teeth. They were given an hour break to reset hair and makeup and prepare for autographs. Adrien changed into another outfit, just as uncomfortable as the first. As he tried to grab a quick bite of food from the buffet table, Lila stormed up to him.

"What was that all about?" she sneered.

He raised his eyebrows innocently, "What was what?"

"'I left my heart in Paris,'" she mocked. "Your father hand picked me for this assignment and you know as well as I do what that means."

"Yes," he said, letting his voice drop to a menacing growl, "it means we have to pose together in front of the camera. But that's all."

She glared and stamped her foot. "You will go out with me, and you will make it look convincing."

He laughed in spite of himself. "No, I won't. There is nothing in my contract that dictates who I can love. And, sorry, Lila, but I do not, and will not ever love you."

She squeaked in fury, clenched her fists, and spun around. Several of the other models and board members were nearby, unintentionally eavesdropping on this rather loud conversation. "What are you all staring at?" she yelled, "Out of my way!" and Lila pushed one of the other models so that the poor girl toppled into the tower of glasses at the bar. With a sickening crunch, she was doused in a waterfall of glass. Adrien rushed to her side and helped her up, brushing glass off her back and out of her hair. One rather large piece had lodged in the back of her arm and blood was already flowing.

"Come on," he said gently, "let's get you to first aid." Nathalie was suddenly there, or perhaps she'd always been there? Either way, Adrien looked to her as she rounded on Lila. He braced for the inevitable impact—he knew how scary Nathalie could get when she was angry.

But it wasn't with fury that Nathalie spoke, instead, she smiled a little at Lila and said in a very calculated tone, "Are you alright?"

Everyone in the room stood, mouth gaping, as Lila put on an act, "Oh thank you, Ms. Nathalie," she crooned. "That girl was looking positively murderous."

Nathalie continued, "It's a good thing your instincts were so sharp." She looked to the other board members and models with a withering glare and continued, "We wouldn't want anyone to mess with our top model, on today of all days. Someone, get this cleaned up. And you," Nathalie turned a stony eye to the bleeding, terrified girl in Adrien's arms, "you're fired."

"Where are you?" he screamed into Marinette's ear.

"The Dupain Bakery," she replied automatically.

"I'm coming!"

Oh no! She raced to her room and locked the door. "Tikki, spots on!" she yelled as she flew to her

skylight and to the balcony above. She jumped to the roof just as the air split in a brilliant circle of light that widened and revealed a very terrified young man with a blond bun, skin-tight brown and black suit, and black glasses. It was strange seeing him transformed by the horse miraculous; it didn't suit him well.

"Let's go," he called, extending a hand. She took it and they dove back through the portal before it closed.

They emerged in an alleyway that smelled vaguely familiar. The buildings were tight against her. The voices of the people were odd, speaking in that clipped, nasal tongue she didn't care much for. She really had tried hard not to find out where Chat Noir was, but there was no mistaking the buildings, smells, sounds, and feel of London.

As the people running down the adjacent street screamed, she started assessing the situation. The ground rumbled. She could hear the unmistakable sound of some kind of monster crunching cars and buildings a few blocks away. Everyone was panicking—people were screaming and stampeding over each other to get away. London had never had an akuma or sentimonster attack; the people here didn't know what to expect or do. "Chat Noir, they're terrified," she cried.

"They're not used to this," he shook his head. She looked at him. He was just so strange in that outfit. She suppressed a giggle.

"Ok, you need to go feed Kaalki and get your Chat on," she said, not doing a good job of hiding the levity in her voice.

He scowled. "What's so funny?"

She hid the smile behind her hand. "It's just, your hair," she said, openly laughing now, "It's a man-bun. I know what Queen Bee might say about this…"

"And you say I find the worst times to make jokes," he growled with a twinkle in his eye. He slipped back into the alleyway. "Don't watch, ok?"

She kept her attention on the people in the street and tried to make out the monster wreaking havoc a few blocks away, but still couldn't help but overhear his voice whisper, "Whoa Kaalki," and a few moments later, "Plagg, claws out!" Chat Noir emerged from the alleyway.
"How's your English?" she asked.

"Purrfect, as always," he responded.

She rolled her eyes. "See if you can help the people get to safety. I'll go check out this thing." He nodded, and effortlessly went into that compassionate mode that made it hard to look away. She used her yo-yo to fly to the rooftops and gained her bearings. Marinette had been here before; a couple years ago, her parents had brought her to London just to support her design habit. She'd spent hours in Sloane Square, goggling over the fashion stores and promising herself that she'd, someday, have a piece on display here. She shook the memory away quickly, though, and locked eyes on the sentimonster. This one was much more refined than the last they had faced, but it was still nothing compared to Mayura's normal standard. It was a tower of wooden blocks, like the ones she saved for play time with Manon, but each the size of a car and precariously wobbling in a serpentine tower. Every few moments, the top block would plummet from its perch and smash into something on the ground, then find its way to the base of the monster and rejoin the stack from the bottom. She watched in horror as the sentimonster crunched another car, and then shattered the glass of Sloane Square's Gabriel storefront. Marinette couldn't help but feel a twang of heartbreak as the shards of glass embedded themselves into the incredible dress on display. "I'll teach you to choose some random no-name over me!" a voice screamed from somewhere nearby, as the sentimonster flung another block toward the Gabriel store.

Ladybug swung in and lassoed the monster's midsection with her yo-yo and yanked with all her might. The middle popped out and all the higher blocks fell in a cascade of wood and destruction, but they started to coalesce immediately. She launched herself toward the wood and kicked out an even lower block, but again, it just rejoined the remaining tower and grew tall again, quickly.

"It's not working," Chat Noir yelled from behind her, making her jump. "I couldn't contain it either!"

"How long have you been fighting this thing before you came and got me?" she called back at him as they both tried to prevent blocks from doing more damage.

He rubbed the back of his neck, "A… while. But we're going to be ok. I think I know where the amok is," he said, pointing toward the ruins of the Gabriel store. "A girl came out of there, one of the models. She was yelling about being passed over for someone else. She was holding a set of keys."

Ladybug narrowed her eyes up the street and saw the girl Chat Noir had pointed at. She had a bandaged arm but looked frightfully outraged. But her swarthy skin, her perfectly set hair, and even her edgy cocktail dress all spoke of another serious issue: "She's not akumatized!"

"I know," Chat bellowed, deflecting a massive block from pummeling the building. "It's just a sentimonster. No akuma."

"How are we going to get out of this one?" she asked herself out loud. "Lucky charm!" A camera fell in her arms. "Oh great, just great," she muttered, "what am I supposed to do now?"

Chat Noir's masked eyebrows flew up when he saw the camera. "Ladybug, I think I know what we're supposed to do!" he shouted jubilantly.

She tossed him the camera. He did a backflip and tore off toward the girl, leaving Ladybug to wrangle the sentimonster alone. She started grabbing the blocks with her yo-yo and tossing them back at it in order to stop them from doing more damage. Ladybug couldn't hear what he was saying, nor could she look away from the sentimonster for any more than a fraction of a second, but a few minutes later, it gave a mighty lurch and suddenly stopped. The blocks flopped listlessly to the ground.

She tossed her yo-yo high and swung down the street in Chat Noir's direction. The girl was pressed up against him and he was patting her hair with one paw while holding the set of keys in the other. "What happened to you was really unfair," he was whispering. "But it's going to be ok. We're going to make sure everything is ok."

Ladybug felt her heart be ripped with emotion—she was so grateful for this amazing kitty who knew exactly how to help… but she was also a tiny bit jealous of the girl in his arms. When he locked eyes with her and smiled, she smiled back, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. He quietly handed the set of keys to her, which she smashed. A purple feather escaped, which she purified with her yo-yo. The crumpled sentimonster disappeared. Then she looked down to the camera at Chat Noir's feet. She made to grab it, but Chat Noir softly said, "Can we use it first?" The purpose of the camera became clear. Ladybug's earrings chirped, but she used her last few minutes to take pictures of Chat with the model, and he took several of her as well. When her earrings started beeping in earnest, she slipped the memory card out of the camera and handed it to the girl, who accepted it with delight.

"This will for sure land me a better job than anything I ever got with Gabriel," she trilled. "Thank you, Ladybug, Chat Noir." They nodded their response.

Ladybug quickly tossed the camera high and shouted "Miraculous Ladybug!" The people of London marveled to see the sparkling ladybugs heal the store and street quickly. With seconds to spare, Ladybug used her yo-yo to lift herself to the nearest rooftop and out of sight. She felt her transformation fall and caught Tikki in her palms. She instinctively retrieved a cookie from her purse and gave it to her friend. But then she heard Chat Noir land behind her.

"DON'T LOOK!" Marinette screamed in a panic. But when she turned to look at him he already had a paw over his eyes.

"I won't," he promised. He reached into one of the invisible pockets on his suit and extracted a pair of glasses. "I knew you'd need these," he said with a little shrug.

She took them, put them on, and called, "Kaalki, full gallop!"

"Can I look now?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied lightly. His eyes searched her new outfit. Then, he burst into laughter. "What?"

"I guess the horse miraculous doesn't really suit either of us," he guffawed. She rolled her eyes, but joined in his laughter. They both laughed until they couldn't stand up straight, and fell to the rooftop underneath them, holding their sides.

But then they were quiet, lying next to each other, staring at the blue London sky, and the reality of the situation started to settle in.

"Uh, Ladybug," Chat started, very carefully, "why were you at the Dupain Bakery?"

The question whisked her breath away. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the time she would have to tell him everything. She rolled on her side to look him in the eyes. They were quiet and fervent as they met hers. He had certainly proved himself. She wanted to tell him. He tentatively took her hand in his and held it so gently… she felt her heart melting. She wanted to tell him desperately.

But then, a memory stirred of her sweet Kitty in that glaring white costume, surrounded by water, saying her name. Her heart wrenched again. She knew what might happen if he ever found out who she was beneath the mask. She didn't know why it was so dangerous, but she knew it was.

"It's personal."

His face fell in quiet resignation.

"Chat," she said, very quietly and with as much love as she could muster, "we're going to have to agree to forget everything about this one. I can't think about why you're here, or why Lila's here too, or how long you fought that sentimonster without me. And you can't think about why I was visiting Marinette."

His eyes were closed in pain. "It'd be so much easier to just be honest with each other."

She choked back a tear. "I know. I want to tell you everything. But we can't, we just can't."

He nodded slowly. "For your information, I was assigned by my newspaper to cover the opening of the Gabriel store."

So he was a reporter. Or a photographer? But then she felt compelled to reply, "And Marinette had just finished my half of our new costume line." He nodded. She wasn't sure he totally bought her story, but then again, it was a lie. Maybe his was too. Either way, they were back at this impasse of cognitive dissonance. She squeezed his hand and leaned her forehead into his chest. She hated lying to him, but she loved him enough to do it.

They stayed there for several minutes. Finally, he got to his feet and pulled her up with him. "It's time for you to get back. Paris needs Ladybug." She nodded. "Also, we're going to have to be on our toes; Hawkmoth has got to be aware that we were both in London today. Who knows how he's going to use that information against us."

She sighed. He was right. This was not good. "Come with me, and take the horse miraculous?" He nodded his agreement. "Voyage," she muttered, concentrating on the fountain near her home. They stepped through. She gave him a brief hug, and then ran behind the carousel and muttered, "Whoa Kaalki." She placed the glasses on the back of one of the horses on the carousel and ran to hide in the hedge. She watched as the carousel started turning, and Chat Noir stood there staring at the place she had disappeared to. As the carousel rotated to bring the glasses to him, his head fell in heartache. He took the glasses and vaulted himself away.

"Marinette, it's really not that big of a deal," Tikki piped. For twenty solid minutes, her holder had been pacing her room, sometimes reaching for her computer mouse, but then marching away defiantly.

"But Tikki, it is a big deal! What if I find an article he wrote? Would I know it was him? What if I don't? What if he was lying to me, just like I did to protect my secret?"
Tikki rolled her little eyes, "Oh Marinette, you're entirely too worked up about this. It's not like he's going to sign anything he does as 'Chat Noir.'"

Marinette started pulling on her pigtails. "No," she said, stamping her foot, "I'm not going to watch the news. I'm not going to invade his privacy like that."

Tikki smiled demurely.

"OhokIcan'thandleit!" Marinette squealed and raced to her computer before she changed her mind again. She pulled up the website to Paris Teen Weekly and there was a link to the press conference at Gabriel in London that morning. She absentmindedly listened to it, heart skipping every time a new reporter asked a question. None of them looked vaguely familiar. "I don't know," she sighed to Tikki after ten minutes of bland shop talk with Gabriel board members, "he might not even look or sound like himself. Or he might be behind a camera, or he might not have even been at this press conference. He didn't say what exactly he did at… the…" but she trailed off as the camera panned out and she saw who else was at the press conference.

There was Lila Rossi, and next to her, a very bored looking Adrien Agreste. Marinette watched, dumbfounded, heart racing, while a reporter asked, "Miss Rossi, you posted a month ago that you and Adrien Agreste were dating, but that was later contradicted than none other but Ladybug and Chat Noir. Yet, here you are representing Gabriel together. You even arrived at this very event, hand-in-hand. Care to set the record straight?"

Lila smiled that nasty sweet smile, and said, "Oh yeah, Adrien and I are very close." Marinette's blood started boiling.

"How dare she!" Marinette yelled at her computer screen as Adrien backpedaled to the cameras. But Lila wasn't letting him off so easy. Marinette wanted to climb through the screen and throttle her as she reached over and caressed Adrien's arm. Marinette couldn't hear the audio, she was growling so loud.

But then Adrien got this hard look on his face, pulled away from Lila, and in a deathly intense whisper, said, "Besides, there's someone else."

"What?" Marinette gasped aloud.

"I left my heart in Paris," he answered with a dreamy smile.

She paused the playback. She listened to it again four times. "I left my heart in Paris." "I left my heart in Paris."

The blood drained from Marinette's face. It wasn't Kagami. But Adrien's words from the sedan, muttered so nonchalantly, echoed in her head, "The girl I love…" It wasn't Marinette either. She'd made peace with it being Kagami. She had been happy for them, truly. Kagami was smart, strong, beautiful, fierce. Kagami was so much better than her; she understood why Adrien could love Kagami. But it wasn't Kagami. It was… someone else.

Marinette fell in her bed and pulled her knees to her chest. "Tikki," she whispered in a dead voice, "I thought I'd moved on. I was thinking about another boy, I was able to talk to Adrien like a normal person, I really thought I'd moved on. Why does this hurt so much?"

Sabine Cheng was sweeping the front steps of the bakery and enjoying the pleasant summer evening of Paris. She stretched her back and neck and looked up at the beautiful building she called home.

Something caught her eye: a tiny, dark purple something was flying straight toward her daughter's bedroom.