Chapter 7

Marinette jabbed the punching bag and balanced her weight on her toes. Left-right-left-right, uppercut, left hook, left-right-left-right, right hook, roundhouse kick. She stepped back and let Alya take her turn.

"He called you out of the blue and said he was coming to get you right then? What did you do?" she gasped at Marinette's story.

"I bolted upstairs while transforming and met him on the roof. I later covered for that by telling him I was picking up a costume from Marinette… well, from myself."

"A costume?" Alya panted through her boxing.
"Well, yeah. I'd kind of, sort of, made Chat a Chat costume. You know, something that he could wear as a disguise, even if he wasn't transformed?"

"You did what?" Alya said with a belly laugh. She had to stop boxing and laugh for a second.

"Well, ever since that sentimonster attack on the last day of school and seeing Mayura not-transformed, I felt like it might be a smart idea to have a backup costume. So I made one for Chat."
"And then you told him yesterday that you had made one for Ladybug as well?"

"Yeah."

"But have you?"

"I… will…"

Alya rolled her eyes, still laughing. "Oh girl, you are too funny! But go on, you went with him to… Madrid was it?"

"No, it was London," Marinette reminded her. "There was a sentimonster attacking the new Gabriel store in Sloane Square. Chat was great—he talked the girl down and she handed over the amok. I've never seen him do something like that. But I'd used my lucky charm so it was time to go home."

Marinette swapped Alya at the punching bag. She told Alya all about her conversation with Chat Noir, how close she was to telling him her identity, his reason for being in London, and coming home determined to corroborate his story.

"So, I pulled up Paris Teen Weekly to see if I could spot him."

"Oh no, you didn't. Please tell me you didn't see that press conference." Marinette hung her head. "Girl, what were you thinking? What if you'd actually recognized him? Then you'd know his identity!"

Marinette hadn't thought of that before. She tugged a pigtail and blushed. "Well, it doesn't matter because he wasn't there, or at least not one of the reporters asking questions."

"But you still saw that bit from Adrien, huh," Alya said.

Marinette punched the bag faster and harder while giving a quick nod.

"Dang. No wonder that akuma had it out for you."

"Thank goodness my mom intervened. The last time an akuma got close, I had one earring out before the akuma just went away. I'm still not sure what happened that time. I swore to myself I'd never let one take over me again… that's why we're training so hard, that's why I meditate every morning and night, that's why I've been working so hard on emotional control… but I couldn't handle it. When Adrien said he was in love with someone else, and I knew it wasn't Kagami or myself, I just crumbled."

Alya pulled her away from the punching bag just long enough to give her a little hug. "And then you were faced with the horrible experience of battling your own mother."

Marinette nodded. "And I couldn't even call my partner because the dumb akuma was in my phone."

Alya gave a little smirk before returning to the punching bag. "How'd you explain that one?"

"I didn't. He didn't ask, so I didn't have to come up with some terrible excuse again."

"So after the battle—I saw that on the news—is that when you saw Chat, but as Marinette?"

Marinette nodded. (It was her "I saw Chat yesterday, as Marinette" that had prompted this conversation.) "He had seen the AkumaAlert, and came to check on my mom. I told him that the akuma had been meant for me and that she'd saved me from it, so we talked on my balcony for a little bit."

Alya noticed the way Marinette's voice softened there at the end, so she raised an eyebrow. "You… talked on your balcony?"

"Yeah…"

Because Alya was a very perceptive best friend, she pressed, "And then what did you do?"

"Well, we were both feeling pretty down, so I suggested we take some of the bakery's leftovers out to people in need. So we took Chat's baton on a good-will tour of Paris."

"So that's what all those selfies with Chat Noir popping up all night were about."

She smiled and shrugged.

"There's more, isn't there." Marinette smiled and blushed. Alya's eyes popped. "Wait, there is! What did you do?"

"He… took me home, we said goodnight, we were both on this serious service high, it felt so good to be with a friend that doesn't have this history of breaking each other's hearts… it was such a beautiful night…"
"MARINETTE!"

"He kissed me."

"SAY WHAT?" Marinette laughed and moved to the speed bag. "What about Adrien? What about Chat's thing for Ladybug? What about any of that?"

Marinette shrugged, "I don't know. It wasn't that kind of kiss. It was tender and sweet, simple and pure. It just felt right."

"Are you in love with him?"

"I've been asking myself that question all night. The honest truth is, I don't know. I love being with him. He and I, that is, Ladybug, have gotten so close to each other, but there's a different side he reserves for me, that is, Marinette. We can talk about anything, we find the same things funny, we're more alike than I ever thought. Of course, Adrien still takes my breath away, but last night, when I was with Chat, it was like all of that was gone. No, more like all of that was fulfilled; like he was the other piece of my heart that was missing. When he and I are together, I feel complete." Seeing Alya's remaining skepticism, Marinette added, "I won't say that's really in love, because it's so different than what I feel about Adrien."

Alya laughed. "I dunno girl, that sounds a lot like love to me."

Marinette blushed but held her ground, "Call it whatever you want; I know what my heart is telling me, and that is to not overcomplicate this relationship like I did with Adrien. With Chat, I want to get it right."

Alya took off her boxing gloves and gave Marinette a hug. "That's a good plan."

"You're awfully chipper this morning," Lila groaned as she plopped next to Adrien at the hotel breakfast table.

"What can I say, London agrees with me."

She rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee. She wrinkled her nose. "Gosh, they can't even get coffee right," she huffed as her stomach growled.

"You should try the beans," he smiled as he took a bite of beans on toast with fried egg. "I know it sounds weird, but it's really great."

She side-eyed his heaping plate of food. "How can you eat that stuff?"

He shrugged, "I just put it in my mouth, chew, and then swallow. It's always worked for me."

She didn't laugh. Nathalie marched toward the two of them, as stiff as ever. "Our driver would like to leave in thirty minutes. Make sure you empty your room entirely. And Adrien," she said, glaring at his plate of breakfast, "promise me you'll still fit into your runway attire."

Even her body-shaming comments couldn't dampen his spirits today. He took a big bite of hashbrowns and smiled at her. "Will do, Miss N!" Her eyebrows flew to her forehead, but she just stomped off. Adrien swallowed and turned to Lila, "You know, there are other options besides just beans on toast. There's fresh bread, yogurt, fruit, cheese…"

She scowled. "Ew."

"Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he laughed.

"Bite me." A yawn betrayed her. "Some of us take our model training more seriously than others." He clutched his chest in feigned hurt. "I had some… training… to accomplish last night. I didn't get to bed until late. Thank goodness I can sleep in the car."

"Yeah, I had a late night too."

"We came back to the hotel pretty early… what were you up to?" He grinned cryptically. "On second thought I don't think I want to know. Probably up half the night making up details about your fake girlfriend." Lila pinched the bridge of her nose.

He laughed and dove back into his breakfast.

An hour later, they sped down the motorway. Lila was right about sleeping in the car—not five minutes had passed when her head was lolling around and soft snores were emanating from her seat. With a couple hours of driving ahead of them and Nathalie up front with the driver, Adrien decided it was safe to pull out his silver cellphone and check in with Ladybug. He'd written her an extensive message with all the details of his conversation with the model girl before getting in the limo, and she had replied:

Milady: great work! Thank you for talking to her.

Adrien started to type a response about how tired Lila was that morning and how she had admitted that she was up late 'training,' but he deleted it. There was no way Chat Noir should have that information if he was a mere reporter. He'd nearly blown it on the StarTrain when he'd told Ladybug how Lila was seated next to him. Instead, he decided to change the topic.

Kitty: You know Marinette Dupain-Cheng, right?

Milady: …sort of…

Kitty: do you have her phone number?

Milady:… why…

Kitty: I saw her mom got akumatized so I went to check on them last night. Btw y didn't u call me

Milady: phone got damaged during the battle. I'm sorry Chat I really wanted to

Kitty: Damaged? Is it ok? Are you ok?

Milady: would I be able to text you if my phone was still damaged?

Kitty: haha I guess not

Milady: miraculous fixed it. It was brutal without you, just fyi

Kitty: sorry I couldn't be there

Milady: you're forgiven. If you can forgive me.

Kitty: of course. Always.

Milady: so… you went to visit Marinette last night?

Kitty: yeah. And don't be mad, ok?

Milady: we've already established I'm not going to get upset w/u

Kitty: she was pretty down, so we talked for a while, and then we took the leftover bakery goods from the day out to people all over Paris. It was great. I just wanted to tell her thanks for a wonderful night.

Milady: That's… super cute.

Milady: *COOL dumb autocorrect

Kitty: haha

Milady: And that also explains why all the newspapers are going bonkers today about u

Milady: I was wondering

Adrien quickly checked the Paris news apps, and sure enough, most had a front-page blurb about Chat Noir's mysterious night of philanthropy. He smiled as he thumbed through them. A minute later, Ladybug texted him Marinette's phone number. He of course could have grabbed it from his civilian cellphone, but he didn't want to explain how he'd gotten her number as Chat.

Kitty: Thanks LB

Kitty: also, I was thinking that since Lila and I are here in London at the same time, I should do some ground work. See what she's up to and stuff

Milady: oooh be careful

Milady: but that's a really good idea

Kitty: be careful? Moi? Aren't I always?

Milady: that's what I'm worried about

She sent him a gif of a black cat getting scared by a cucumber. He snorted so loudly that Lila stirred in her seat.

Texting was great. Phone calls were better. But after a few days of spending his waking hours being carted around and put on display next to Lila, Adrien was going out of his mind. He desperately needed a decent conversation with a decent human being. He tried to remember how he felt when he was helping people as Chat Noir, but the feeling was fading faster than he wanted. He looked over his schedule—there was several hours of free time ahead of him to prepare for a big gala that evening… so he planned his escape.

SuperChat: Hey, what u doing?

Purrincess: practicing

SuperChat: practicing what?

Purrincess: wouldn't u like to know

SuperChat: yes I would

Purrincess: what if I said it was something really mean?

SuperChat: you can't even think up something really mean as an example. That text took u like eight minutes to write

Purrincess: haha

Purrincess: Fencing.

SuperChat: Really?

Purrincess: it's a new development

SuperChat: so, you must be at the gym then…

Purrinces: yeah… so?

Purrincess: Chat?

Purrincess: Chat, what are you doing?

"Just saying hi," he said right into her ear. She screamed and jumped two feet into the air. Her pink phone went flying, which he snatched out of the air while simultaneously scooping her waist in his arm and setting her gently back on the bench where she'd been perched with her towel and water bottle. Chat picked up her foil and tossed it back and forth between his hands. "So, you've taken up fencing, eh?"

She was still gawking. "When I said you should come around more often, I didn't mean you could just randomly pop up out of the blue."

He laughed, "But your reaction was so priceless!"

She stuck out her tongue at him and faux pouted. "One of these days I'm going to get you back."

"And I look forward to watching you try. Until then, care for a round?"

She stood up and stretched a bit, sizing him up. "I remember some of the footage of you dueling Riposte and Dark Knight. You're no novice, are you."

He raised his eyebrows and gave a smug little grin. "You've been watching my footage? Well, aren't you just as cute as a kitten."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a second foil. "Engarde!"

Marinette was way better than Chat had expected. Aided by her feather-light footwork, she landed some impressive touches. Chat Noir was actually having to dig deep into Adrien's fencing training to stay ahead of her. After three nine-minute rounds, Chat eventually made his fifteenth touch as opposed to her twelve, and the two bowed to each other and took off their masks. She was sweating and her pigtails were askew. "I demand a rematch!" she shouted.

"Already?" Chat fake yawned. "I didn't think you'd be so eager to add to your mew-sery!"

"Oh, not at fencing… that's hardly fair—I'm just a beginner, and you've got super agility."

"Which I didn't use!" he countered, but when her hands fell on her hips and her eyes narrowed into those freckled cheeks, he added, "much."

She thought for a second. "Do you ever play Ultimate Mecha Strike III?" His eyes lit up. "Ok, give me a few minutes to change."

An hour later in the Dupain-Cheng living room, Marinette did a victory dance, pirouetting on one toe and then sliding into the dab and shouting, "That's how you do it, Marinette-style!"

Chat pretended to be affronted, but she was too cute to keep up the act. He started laughing. "Alright, I'll admit it, you're better than me."

"That's right. Don't you forget it."

"So I won fencing, you took video games… what's going to be the tie breaker?"

Marinette plopped down on the couch beside him and tapped her lips in thought. "Well, I know I'd kick your tail basically anything you can't cheat at."
"Cheat? Moi?"

She laughed. "I dunno, Chat, what are your hobbies? You know, that don't benefit from super strength."

"So apparently bench-pressing cars is out…" She laughed again. He loved making her laugh. "Um, let me think…" She slipped her hand into his. "That's not fair, you're distracting me." She squeezed it. "You're really distracting me." She put her free hand at the base of his neck and scratched very lightly. He couldn't stop the purr that escaped from his chest.

"Ha ha!" she yelled triumphantly, "I win again!"

He shook his head and leaned into her touch and let his purr deepen, "I beg to differ." She quieted, but didn't stop scratching his neck. After a few moments of silence, he asked with a more serious tone, "Is this ok?" He held up their entwined hands.

She took a slow breath, but didn't pull away, "I'm not making any promises, Kitty. But I really like being with you."

He relaxed into her shoulder. "So, you're not… feeling…" he had no clue where this sentence was headed.

"Can we just enjoy some time getting to know each other and not make it a complicated thing?"

"Are you sure you're ok with that? Because if you want to date, I would do that; it's just hard with this mask on."

"Chat, just because we kissed once doesn't mean we have to be boyfriend and girlfriend." He let out a small sigh of relief. The time Adrien had kissed Kagami, she'd immediately expected him to publicly announce their relationship. "Can we just try this on for size for a bit?"

He nodded gently. "Piano."

"Hm?"

"You asked me what my hobbies were that don't require super strength. I like to play the piano."

"Interesting… come on," she said as she dragged him off the couch by their entwined hands. "I've got to see this in action."

"Oh no, what've you got in mind?"

"There's a public piano at Trocadero."

Chat flashed one of his brilliant model smiles, scooped her up and jumped out the window. She snuggled against him as he pole vaulted over buildings toward Trocadero. He realized how comfortable it was—he'd carried plenty of people in his time as Chat, but they typically yelped or shied away from him, but Marinette didn't let out as much as a squeak and almost seemed to enjoy the flying sensation.

There was already a large crowd milling around Trocadero when they arrived, including quite a few friends from school. Chat was about to wave, when he remembered that he was in costume. Marinette, however, had no such restriction, so she said hi to Mylene and Ivan, Rose, Juleka, and Luka, who were out enjoying the hot summer day. Marinette was about through with greetings when Rose saw Chat Noir standing back a few feet. "Wait, did you come with Chat Noir?"

"Oh, yeah," Marinette stammered, blushing furiously. "He's going to try to show me up."

Rose looked baffled, but Chat used that as his cue to step forward and put his hand on Marinette's shoulder. "Show up the most talented girl in all of Paris?" (She blushed again—and Chat smirked) "Im-paw-ssible." Everyone laughed.

Marinette grabbed his hand and marched him to the public piano and pushed him to the bench. "Oh no you don't," he laughed, "if I'm going to show you up, you've got to play too." He scootched down and grabbed her hand to pull her next to him.

"Wait, no, I really don't play…"

He whispered in her ear, "Just play the black keys. It'll be fine, I swear." He started an upbeat blues riff on the lower half of the piano, and immediately gave a little barking laugh. "Ha! I've never played with claws before!" She smiled at his reaction to the feel of the keys through his gloved hands. When he'd finished his introduction, he counted off the beat to her and she joined in, sticking to the black keys just like he'd instructed. She was amazed at how good it sounded. She stuck to just a few notes at first, then got more inventive, mixing up rhythms and playing several keys at a time. He kept chugging away, watching her hands rather than his own, head bobbing to the beat of the music. He followed her lead to intensify the dynamics and then relax a bit, give and take, push and pull, until he whispered, "stand up!" in her ear and then kicked the bench out from underneath them. They pounded into the piano for several more chords, until at last it felt like the right time to end. Chat wrapped up the duet neatly with a huge glissando and rumbling bass finale. They finished laughing together.

Chat was so engrossed in the playing the piano that he hadn't noticed the crowd form around them, so he literally jumped when they burst out in deafening applause. Marinette was blushing furiously but stepped back and made Chat accept the accolades on his own. He quickly recovered, though, and started giving grandiose bows, then grabbed Marinette's hand and she curtsied sweetly.

"You win," she laughed as the crowd kept cheering, "you're more talented than me."

"Ah no," he responded, "that was definitely a tie."

Finally, when the crowd quit taking pictures and let Marinette and Chat Noir slink away, he walked her home. Somehow, their hands found each other.

"So, uh, Marinette, I never got to thank you for the Chat suit you made me," he said.

"Oh, yeah, well, Ladybug helped a lot. I never could have gotten your measurements without her."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do you spend a lot of time with Ladybug?"

Marinette shrugged and slowly replied, "Not a lot, but she did commission the outfits, so I guess it's been more often recently."

He thought about that for a moment, then continued, "Do you think you could conveniently not mention that I was here today? I mean," he hastily added when he saw Marinette's eyes widen, "I don't think she'd be angry that I needed a break from… where I was… but I think she'd be sad to know I was here and didn't say hi."

"Whatever you want, Chat. But I think she'll probably notice you were here… there were quite a few cameras out, both at the gym and Trocadero."
"Hm… maybe I should try to call her, see if she's around…" he checked his baton phone. "Oh shoot, is that the time?"
"Oh no, I've kept you too late," Marinette fretted, "I'm sorry, Chat. I didn't want to get you in trouble."

He looked at the furrow in her brow and rubbed his finger into it gently. "You have nothing to apologize for, Marinette."

She dug her toe into the ground and dropped her chin, "I just… know this must be hard for you—living two lives, always having unwanted attention, not being able to have friends or people to talk to as Chat Noir, the isolation and loneliness that must come from the mask… I don't want to make your life any harder than it already is."

"Marinette," he sighed, gently cupping her chin in his hand, "you do not make my life harder. In fact, just the opposite. With you, I can be truly myself. It's… liberating." A little smile curled the edge of her lips. They were so cute and inviting, Chat couldn't help but lean in and reinforce his feelings with a second kiss.

She seemed more prepared for it this time; she leaned up on her tiptoes to reach him easier and slipped her hand through his hair. The kiss deepened, but then she unexpectedly stepped back and pulled away from him. Her fingers flew to cover her mouth. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm sorry, Marinette, was that too much?"

She shook her head, "It's not your fault, Chat. I'm just not totally sure if I'm over…"

"The idiot who broke your heart?"

She scowled with her eyes still closed, "He's not an idiot; but yes. I'm sorry. I don't want this to be complicated or awkward."

He rubbed her shoulder gently. "I know. I'm not so sure what I want either… but one thing I know for sure is that I don't want to hurt you. You're very special to me, Marinette. No matter what happens, with jerkface or Ladybug, I need you to know how special and wonderful you are, and how much I care about you."

"And I care about you too, very much. I just want you to be happy."

"You make me happier than anyone I've ever met."

She finally dropped her hands again and revealed a smile. She threw her arms around his strong shoulders and kissed him through the hug. "You make me happy too, Chat. We'll figure this all out as we go along, right?" He nodded. "Now, you head on home."

He didn't move right away, but slowly took her hand, brushed his lips to her knuckles, in a bow, and said, "Farewell, my Purrincess."

"Farewell, you silly thing."

"Adrien," Plagg moaned in delight from his hotel minifridge, "you've got to try this one. It's a goat cheese from the Cotswolds; they washed the rind in caramel."

Adrien rolled his eyes. "Ok, Plagg, just a bite."

Plagg brought Adrien a tiny piece of cheese. "But you'd better appreciate it—I'm warning you—"

Adrien laughed. He took a tiny bite and felt the crystalline structure of a finely aged cheese yield to his teeth. He looked out the corner of his eye at his kwami and they both nodded slowly in appreciation.

"I knew it. I knew you were the best owner ever."

Adrien poked his kwami in the stomach. "You can keep your camembert, though."

Adrien was contemplating a night time excursion back to Paris to refill his macaron supply when his silver phone buzzed. He pulled it out and checked it. "Oh, oh," he gasped, "the tracker is working. Plagg, Lila's on the move." Plagg nodded his consent and Adrien quietly punched the air with a, "Plagg, claws out!"

Chat Noir climbed out of the hotel window in order to avoid the hotel security cameras. He checked his phone. Lila was heading downstairs to the main entrance. It was dark outside—close to midnight—there was no reason she should be heading out except for some kind of trouble. He pounced silently on the roof of the hotel entrance and pressed his body flat. Lila exited the hotel, climbed into a waiting limousine, and started to pull away. He did a quick flip off the roof and followed the limousine as it drove to the outskirts of Birmingham and an empty warehouse. He hid in the shadows when Lila got out. This certainly wasn't a great place to find some night life. A large door slid open and Lila walked inside. Chat slunked to the side of the building and found a window higher up that he could fit through. He used his baton to lift himself and peered through the window, making sure there was nobody that would see him if he gave it a try. The window wasn't locked, as it was over two stories off the ground, so he pushed it open and slid inside. He crawled through a maze of old equipment debris until he came to the edge of a loft that opened to a big warehouse floor below. Lila was being frisked by a woman Chat immediately recognized as strange-Mayura.

"What's this?" Mayura hissed.

"It's a keychain Adrien gave me. Ugly, I know. But I thought it was a good step forward. You do still want me to get close to him, right?"

Mayura gave the keychain back to Lila and she stowed it in her pocket. "Of course. Although I do admit he's being difficult. I don't know why… every other teenage boy wouldn't have been able to ignore that number I put you in at the gala last night." Chat wrinkled his nose. Lila's dress last night had barely covered her underwear. It was not alluring, just disgusting.

"Well, if you want me to get close to him, you're going to have to come up with better ideas than just making me wear skimpy dresses. The boy's a block of ice. You still don't have any idea who that other girl might be?"

Mayura shook her head, "I searched his phone—nothing. No phone calls, no texts… if there is another girl, I don't think I'm in the right position to find out. But Adrien's just a baby when it comes to girls. Maybe you should offer to help him with her. He's gullible enough that he might just take you up on it." Lila nodded through her grimace.

"Now, Jeune Paonne, let's get to work."

Lila sighed and took something small from Mayura's hands and fiddled with her shirt for a moment before saying, "Duusu, spread my feathers." Lila's body shimmered with transformation and was suddenly standing in a dress just like the model had described—light blue, low-cut neckline, a blue mask over her face, with a peacock feather perched on her head.

Almost instantly, Mayura started sparring with Jeune Paonne. It was clear that Mayura was far more skilled at martial arts than Lila, even without super-agility. They threw blows for a while, Mayura always hitting her intended mark, Lila rarely hitting hers.

"You haven't been practicing," Mayura sneered.

"How can I?" Lila huffed, "You've got me so busy with this stupid trip and stupid Adrien that I can't even breathe, let alone train!"

"You're making excuses. Would you like to go back to Paris then?"

Lila shook her head and started dealing blows with more dedication. Mayura still wasn't impressed. "You're so sloppy! We're never going to be able to take on Ladybug and Chat Noir unless you start trying!"

Lila growled and added her feet to her fists in a barrage of punches and kicks. Mayura bent and twisted away from them, occasionally blocking some with her hands or a return kick. "I'll just use a sentimonster then," Lila yelled in fury.

"They know how to bring sentimonsters down; it's no good if you're not ready to take them head-on. Besides, your sentimonsters are still pathetic."

"Maybe if you'd actually let me build more of them—"

"What, so you can expose yourself again? That first one just about blew everything!"

"That's what you say," Lila spat. "Chat Noir is even more gullible than Adrien—he bought the damsel-in-distress hook, line, and sinker. Besides, you've got to admit, the one in London last week was awfully impressive."

Mayura planted her feet and shook her head. "It barely got the job done. Thank goodness Hawkmoth and I were able to extrapolate the information we needed from that disaster. But that was despite your sloppy blunder, not because of it." Mayura produced a couple bo staffs from the shadow below the loft where Chat was hiding and tossed one to Lila, who started spinning it. Then, they connected and started sparring with weapons.

"Does that mean you've got a plan?" Lila questioned.

"Yes."

"Ooh, what do I do?" Lila squealed.

"You'll follow orders."

Lila frowned but kept her bow staff up to deflect a jab from Mayura, but she wasn't quite fast enough and Mayura's staff followed through to sweep Lila's left leg from underneath her. She fell on her tailbone, hard.

"Get up." Mayura growled. Lila tried but failed. "Get up!"

"Can I just have a quick break? Sheesh!"

"A quick break? Chat Noir's been using his staff for a year now—he's going to decimate you—and you want a break?" Lila winced. "Give me the staff," Mayura spat. "You can have it back when you've earned it." Lila reluctantly threw the bo staff at Mayura's feet. "Now, sprints, to the ceiling and back again."

Lila groaned. Apparently she knew what 'sprints' were. She ran across the room, did a series of flips off of overturned boxes and equipment to reach the roof, where she hung from an exposed truss and walked her hands over each other to inch her way to the other side of the room, where she let go and did three summersaults before landing on her feet.

"Again," Mayura instructed. After five more reps of the grueling acrobatics, Mayura let Lila sit down and have a sip of water. "It's a start," was the closest thing to a compliment that passed Mayura's lips. "I still would have preferred the Tsurugi girl, but we're at least making some progress."

Lila glared at her. "You're not going to back down on your promise, right?"

Mayura laughed harshly. "Ms Rossi, there's only one liar in this room, and it is not me."

Lila buoyed up at that retort. "Oh, I can't wait to see that stupid baker girl turn to ash."

Mayura held up a finger, "Ladybug will come first. Then you can have whatever you want. But Ladybug and Chat Noir are first. Don't forget that."

Lila shrugged. "Whatever."

The two trained and dueled until the early hours of the morning but said little more of consequence. When they eventually cleaned up and Lila headed for her limousine, Chat slipped out of the window and took the fast way back to his hotel room. Even though he was flying over the rooftops of Birmingham, he pulled out his silver cell phone and dialed Ladybug.

"H-hello?" she said through a sleepy fog. Good gracious, it was two-thirty.

"Ladybug? Sorry to wake you."

"Its…ok…" she said with a yawn, and then, startling, "wait, are you ok? Where are you? Do you need to come get me?"

"I'm fine, but we seriously need to talk."

Marinette was pacing the floor in her pajamas, trying to process everything Chat Noir was saying in a rapid, breathless whisper. Lila was definitely training with Mayura. They were plotting something with Hawkmoth. Part of that plot included her seducing Adrien (though Chat had been pretty adamant that Adrien was not interested), and Mayura was going through Adrien's phone to find out who his mystery love was. They were training with bo staffs, lassos and grapples, and advanced martial arts.

"You're sure they didn't see you?" Marinette whispered.

"Yes, I'm sure. It's fortunate, really, that I was given the assignment of this tour," Chat admitted.

"Very fortunate. We're… incredibly fortunate," Marinette said, starting to notice her own echo, "now we have the upper hand. We know where Lila is and more or less what she's trying to do. Chat, this is incredible. You are wonderful!"

"Watch out, I might think you mean that."

"I do mean it, wholeheartedly! You've made a huge breakthrough! Thank you!"

"You're welcome," he said with that shy voice he only gave when truly touched. "So, how are we going to capitalize on this?"

"Well, I definitely need you to protect Adrien," she started. "He doesn't know he's being targeted."

"Can do."

"Chat, really, take good care of him. I swear, if Lila or Mayura touch one of his beautiful blonde hairs, I will rip them limb-for-limb."

"Uh… ok, I promise I'll be there for him, night and day." She took a deep breath and sighed in relief. "Hey, Ladybug, what if we let him in on it? Not on everything, just that Lila is working with Hawkmoth and Mayura?"

"That's pretty risky. Do you think he'd be willing to help us out?"
"Definitely. I mean, I don't speak for him, but I know the guy. He's… cool. I'd bet my cat bell he'd be willing to lead Lila on a bit just to get some information."

Marinette didn't like this idea one bit. "Be a double agent? Return her affections so that we can get more information? No, I can't let Adrien do something like that. He's so honest and kind… I mean, in the couple times I've met him, that is."

"I'll ask him, see what he says. As Chat, of course. He doesn't know my identity."

"Well, that's a given. Although don't think I've forgotten that I promised you one person you could tell… maybe telling Adrien who you are wouldn't be so bad. You're friends right? He's definitely trustworthy, and you could keep an eye on him from both sides of the mask."

"Yeeeeahhh…" Chat Noir hesitated over the phone. "I was… thinking about someone else..."

Marinette shrugged, even though Chat couldn't see her. "Well, it is your choice. I know you'll make the right one." She yawned and noticed the sunlight peeking through her bedroom window. "Good gracious, it's almost dawn! You've been out all night!"

As if on cue, he yawned. "Yeah, but I don't have to be at work until afternoon."

"I'll let you get some sleep, then. But seriously, thank you for… everything."

"You're welcome, Bugaboo."

She hung up the phone, but didn't go back to bed. Instead, she called her transformation on, and ran upstairs so that she could turn the velvet sky into her background. She started the video recording and carefully said, "Superheroes of Paris, we need your help."

Author Note: It's finals week! I probably won't be able to update this week, so I send my warmest regards and hopes that this chapter will be enough to tide you over until I pass all my classes. Coming soon: more random fluff, more veiled allusions, and oodles of cliffhangers.