Chapter 4
Mais pourquoi?
Je n'ose rien lui dire.
Je le veux que pour moi
Sa lumière, son sourire
Traversant pour un soir
ce mur qui nous sépare
When Chat arrived at Marinette's house she was seated on her desk, seemingly writing something, but all Chat could see were distorted images since something was blocking his view. Regardless, he knocked on the window, this startled Marinette at first, but she stood up to open the window nonetheless.
"Good evening, princess." Chat said and Marinette looked at him with big eyes and opened mouth. "What is it, princess? The cat got your tongue?"
'I wish.' she thought, mentally slapping herself for even thinking something like that, but didn't say anything
"I see you put up curtains." Chat noted as he entered the room, he noticed that it was the curtains that were blocking his view a few moments ago.
Marinette nodded but still was staring at him as if he was a ghost coming straight from the beyond.
"Are you feeling okay Marinette? You seem a little flushed." He went near to her to touch her forehead with his gloved hand, but she turned away.
"Yeah... No, I'm fine! It's just..." She started to walk away but then turned to look at Chat. "You disappeared for a week, and then you come back out of nowhere. How do you expect me to react?" Marinette snapped.
"About that... I'm sorry Mari, I... I've been busy."
"Lot of Akumas to fight?" She asked coldly.
"Yeah... and no." She was taken aback, she was expecting him to lie, but he hadn't, not entirely. "There have been some Akumas, but there always are... the real reason why I didn't come is that I haven't been feeling like myself lately, there are a lot of things I've had to think about..." He told her while reclining on the wall next to the window.
"What kind of things?" She asked nonchalantly.
Chat shrugged and then grinned. "Just things... you know I have a life outside of the mask, and I'm afraid I can't tell much."
"Is it about Karla?" Marinette asked about the girls he had talked about the last time she had seen him, though she was a little embarrassed by her own question it turned out sometimes she forgot that even her friend Chat had to keep secrets from her. She didn't always regret having a double life, but now was one of times she did.
"A little... but that's enough about me." He changed the subject before she could ask anything else, pushing himself from the wall to face Marinette. "Tell me the truth Mari, did you miss me?" He grinned at her putting a hand on his chin.
"No." She answered crossing her arms and turning away.
"No?" slowly, he got closer to her with a smug smile, looking for her face trying to make her look at him.
"No." She repeated turning away from him again.
"Not a single bit?" He got in front of her and adopted his cat posture on the floor.
"Not for a moment."
"Aww, then I'll guess I'll go home then." He said with a pout.
"As you should..." She said trying to hide a smile. "I don't want a stinky cat in my house!"
"I'll just find another girl to feed me croissants then..."
"There'll be plenty of those out there." She was starting to fail in hiding her grin.
"Yea... I'll just find one that smells like cheese!" Chat said cheerfully.
"What the..." this time Marinette burst into laughter not being able to contain herself anymore.
"The most delicious cheese!" Chat said again, making her laugh even more. Her laugh was contagious and soon he started giggling.
"Why do you want a girl that smells like cheese?" She asked holding her stomach.
"I like cheese." He said joking again.
"But a girl that smells like cheese?"
"Hey, if she smells like cheese it means she has cheese stored somewhere." He shrugged with a grin.
"That's so cheesy, Chat Noir..." she said still laughing.
"Oh no, you did not just make that pun!" He chuckled.
"You're a cheesy person." She said again and Chat started to laugh. The situation was so random that they couldn't hold their laugh. Yes, their jokes were pretty cheesy, but any tension that had accumulated in the room was lifted like fog.
"So..." Chat said after a few moments wiping away a tear. "You did miss me."
"I didn't miss your cheesy puns, that's for sure," Marinette said sitting on her chaise longue.
"Fair enough." He said laying on the floor with his hands on the back of his head. From where he was sitting, he could see Marinette's bed, and on the wall, there was aboard, he had seen it many times, but there was something different about it, he could also see the wall behind her computer, something was missing there as well. "What happened to all the photos of what's his face... that kid... Adrien Agreste?!"
"What?!" she turned to see where he was looking, the color draining from her face. "Oh, those..." she blushed now. "Them... I had them for... inspiration, you know, for my fashion designs, you know since he is a fashion model and all."
"Yeah, but why did you take them off?" He was genuinely interested; he knew Marinette was a fan of his and it felt weird that she wasn't anymore.
"They weren't bringing me any inspiration, so I decided to take them off." She shrugged but was still blushing.
"Oh... so what's your new source of inspiration?" She shrugged again but said nothing. "Is that what you were doing before I came in?" She nodded. "Can I see?" He stood up quickly and headed for the desk, Marinette tried to catch up to him, but he was faster than her and took her sketchbook before she could do anything about it.
He was looking at the design of a dress, it was sleeveless, entirely black, with a high neck. It had pockets on the hips and the sketch model had her hands in them, the dress ran all the way to her knees and had an asymmetrical skirt. Chat Noir turned to the next page, there was another black dress with a bateau neckline, the model was wearing black see-through gloves and had a bell-shaped black skirt. The next dress was black and green, it looked like a swirl around the model's body. And so on, there were around half a dozen designs, all in black, some had some other components, but it was clear who Marinette's new source of inspiration was.
"Marinette, I'm flattered." He said putting his hand on his chest, clearly touched by Marinette's gesture.
"Who said it was you?" She said taking away the sketchbook from him.
"Well then, I want to meet this other black and green cat fella."
"It could be Kitty Noir, remember? when Ladybug used your miraculous?"
"Ah, but you said it could be, not that it was." He told her with a smile.
"Fine! It is you, I couldn't help it, you disappeared and all I could think about was what I did wrong to make you leave the way you did." She said looking away, "I guess I took all my worries and reflected them in my sketches."
"Well, I guess I'll have to stop comming more often." He said looking at her with a tender expression.
"What?"
"I mean, these designs are great! If they came out of a week of you worrying about me..."
"Don't joke about those things, Chat Noir." She cut him off turning to face him with a furrowing brow.
"Okay, okay, I was joking." He said putting his hands up as a sign of defeat. "But I mean it though, your designs are amazing! You should make some male outfits too, maybe then I can model them for you."
"You, modeling my clothes?" She asked, the half smile returning to her face and the furrow disappeared. "You don't strike me for a model, Chaton," she giggled.
"I'm full of surprises, princess! There's a lot about me that you don't know."
"Like what, are you gonna tell me you're a musician as well?" She looked at him challengingly.
"I was born playing the keys!"
"No, you did not!" She was shocked.
"Cat's honor!" He presses his right hand on his heart and went to sit on Marinette's desk chair.
"So, what other surprises are you hiding? Are you gonna tell me you're a science person?"
"I've been thinking about it, either science or business administration, either works for me."
"You're kidding."
"Why is it so hard to believe?" He chuckled. "I love science! Physics is my favorite subject! And I'd love to make a career on it."
"Then what about business administration? Where did that come from?" She asked still not sure if she believed him entirely.
"In case it'll be up to me to run my family's business, though I'd rather not."
"And what would that be?"
"Let's just say it's not something I'm entirely into, but I can make it work if I want to. Let's just see where life takes us." He relaxed in the chair, but then looked at Marinette who seemed upset by something. "What's the matter, princess?"
"Nothing, it's just that..." she sighed. "My parents want me to run the bakery when I'm older, I mean, I have no issues baking stuff but... it's not what I want to do for the rest of my life."
"I feel you, Mari," he sighed, "But hey, we have time to think about these things, let's not stress over it right now."
"Speaking of stress," Marinette said propping up from her seat and walking to her computer. "There's this new movie on Netflix, people keep saying it's terrible and that I should watch it, but I'm always to busy to do it, but now that you're here I could use that excuse."
"Sure! I love a terrible good ol' movie." Chat said, and while Marinette searched the movie on her computer Chat accommodated the room, moving the chaise longue closer to the computer and placing some pillows around.
The movie was supposed to be a romantic comedy, but the lines were cheesy, the characters were underdeveloped, and Chat and Marinette had a great time criticizing it. It seemed like Chat had a sarcastic comeback for every line in the movie and it made Marinette have a good laugh, but she didn't fall behind, he enjoyed herself by finishing the characters lines with something she found more suitable or just making fun of their outfits. Chat's smile was the sweetest thing Marinette had ever seen, and his laugh was musical! Marinette didn't know what it was, but she was sure she saw him glow every time he chuckled. Chat Noir was a great jokester, but Marinette had rarely ever seen him actually laughing! And the fact that she was part of the cause of his smile gave her the warmest feeling ever.
This was until they got to the serious part of the movie when the character started to embrace their feelings for each other in the cheesiest most ridiculous way possible. This made them sleepy, and little by little Marinette placed her head in Chat's shoulder and Chat placed his head in her head.
When they woke up the movie was over and Netflix was suggesting another movie to watch.
"I think we fell asleep chaton," Marinette said rubbing her eyes.
"Yeah... it was a good movie though."
"It was terrible." She snapped
"It was awful." He finished and they giggled. "What time is it though?" Marinette stood on her knees and moved the mouse on the computer to see what time it was.
"3:30 am!"
"What? How long was that stupid movie?"
"I don't know..."
"Yeah... I better get going, this is the time when the spirits come to haunt us from the beyond"
"Don't tell me you believe in those things." She said jokingly.
"Nah, but it is the time the streets are darkest, it's perfect for me to leave." He motioned to the window, but before heading out he looked at Marinette. "I had fun today, I promise I won't disappear out of nowhere again."
"You better." She said with sleepy eyes. He smiled and jumped out of the window disappearing in the dark.
Chat came to visit her the next day, and they had a lot of fun as well, laughing, looking at memes, watching movies, they even started binge-watching a series on Netflix! But Chat didn't come back on Sunday, and this disappointed Marinette more than it should have.
By Monday Marinette's thoughts were all over the place, except on the physics assignment in front of her. The problems didn't make sense to her, there were words and numbers but none of them made sense.
"Need help, Marinette?" Adrien, who was sitting next to her, asked with a smile. "You seem a little bit worked up."
"Ah, yes... I'm a little distracted this morning, I could use some help." Adrien leaned next to her and explained how to solve the problems, and Marinette tried with all her might to focus on the task at hand.
"See? You just have to use the formula." Adrien finished the problem and Marinette finally understood.
"Oh so, this is the speed and that's the force! Makes sense!"
"See? physics can be fun." Adrien giggled.
"I wouldn't call it fun, but thanks Adrien, you really helped me a lot." Marinette smiled at him until the professor saw them and told them to work in silence.
During lunch, Marinette was quiet and pensive, looking through the window, completely lost in thought. Alya noticed this and said:
"Marinette, can you come with me to the bathroom?" Marinette was startled for a moment but stood up to accompany Alya anyways.
"Why do girls go to the bathroom together?" Nino asked Adrien, who had been seating next to Marinette all along. Adrien shrugged with a half-smile.
"That's the world's biggest mystery."
Of course, there was no mystery involved, but Alya wanted to talk to Marinette in private, plus the girl's bathroom is supposed to be a social club.
"Spill it Marinette," Alya said once they reached the bathroom, making sure there was nobody in the stalls to hear their conversation.
"Spill what?"
"You know what I'm talking about!" She shouted, but Marinette looked at her with a blank expression. "Adrien was sitting next to you during lunch and you didn't even notice."
"Oh that... what about it?" Marinette looked at herself in the mirror, and took a colored Chapstick from her purse and applied some to her lips.
"What do you mean? You've had a ginormous crush on Adrien for two years, and now you're acting as if nothing is happening!"
"Well, nothing is happening Alya," Marinette snapped. "I've tried everything to get close to Adrien, but nothing happens! I'm not even able to speak properly to him... he's too good for me... plus, I think he likes someone else." Marinette finished, but she didn't look sad, instead, she looked determined.
"Are you telling me that you decided to move on from Adrien out of nowhere?"
"Not out of nowhere..." Marinette sighed, "I've been thinking about it for a while now... I feel like I went over the top since the beginning and now... it feels as if my feelings for him are just going downhill."
"Okay, but tell me the truth," Alya said putting her hand on her forehead, still a little bit shocked by Marinette's declaration. "Is there someone else?" she blushed a little but tried to control it and pretty much succeeded.
"Does there have to be someone else? I just noticed that my crush on Adrien wasn't taking me anywhere."
"It's Luka, isn't it?" Alya asked casually.
"I..." Marinette tried to say, but then the bell rang and it was time to go back to class. "We'll talk later, I have English now." They left the bathroom together, but Marinette didn't say anything else.
After class, Alya caught up to her before Marinette had time to leave.
"Don't think you'll escape from our conversation that easily young lady, you'll have to tell me sooner or later."
"Adrien!" came a voice from behind them. Marinette turned around and noticed that it was Kagami, she was heading to where Adrien was standing talking to Nino a few feet away. Adrien smiled at her and hugged her. She smiled back at him and started talking in a lower voice so that Alya and Marinette couldn't make out their words, but both of them seemed happy.
"Adrien seems to like Kagami," Marinette said, still looking back at Adrien, but then she turned to face Alya. "I can't compete with her, she's great! And Adrien is happy around her. Who am I to get between them?"
"Mari, you're a great girl as well! And Adrien is a jerk for not noticing that." Alya said angrily.
"He's not a jerk, I guess we're just not meant to be..."
"Well, if you're really gonna do this, there's something you must know," Alya softened her expression and put a hand on Marinette's left shoulder. "you're worth more than you can even imagine, and when the right person comes, he's going to notice that, you'll be able to be yourself with him and you won't need to ever pretend to be someone you're not or change who you are in order to make him like you."
"Thanks, Alya, it means a lot." Marinette smiled. Alya leaned in and hugged Marinette. While they were still embracing, Marinette saw something that disturbed her. Behind Alya was a man, wearing a black skintight suit, he was also wearing a knee-length black jacket with a hoodie, in his face he had a mask that covered his eyes, giving him an even darker appearance. In his hand, he was carrying something like a pipe. "Alya, look!" Alya turned in time to see it shoot a small and round white projectile with the pipe; as soon as it hit Alya's nose she froze, completely unable to move. When she saw this, Marinette tried to run away but a projectile got her first, and everything went black.
"Marinette! Wake up!" came a distorted voice from a person in front of her, Marinette shook her head and tried to focus on the person standing in front of her.
"Alba?" Marinette said with a raspy voice, touching her forehead in an effort to stop everything from spinning around. "What happened?"
"There's an Akuma, it's Mr. LeBeau or as he calls himself, Drillmaster," I said in a rush with a worried expression. "The Akuma is in the blowpipe and he uses it to spit paper projectiles that put people in some sort of deep sleep or coma or whatever, the thing is, I was able to wake you up by pulling it off, here." I gave Marinette the small paper ball that apparently had put her into a coma.
"How long have I been unconscious?" She asked hastily
"Only a few minutes. Chat Noir already went to confront Drillmaster." Marinette nodded and ran off to transform, but I stayed behind pulling off paper projectiles from the people around me and telling them to run off.
Now transformed, Ladybug took her Jojo and called Chat Noir.
"Ah, she lives!" he said sarcastically through the video call.
"I'm sorry chaton, I was delayed... Where are you?"
"The roof of the Lycée Carnot*." Ladybug looked up to see that Chat was, in fact, fighting Drillmaster almost on top of where she was standing. Suddenly the image froze, but she could still hear the laugh of the villain in the background, which meant the image wasn't the one the froze.
Ladybug used her Jojo to hop to the ceiling where she found a frozen Chat Noir and Drillmaster reaching closer to him no doubt to get his miraculous. Ladybug threw her Jojo at him hitting him in the hand and making him back away, and with that same motion, she used her Jojo to catch Chat Noir and pull him closer to her on the edge of the building. Once they were near, she saw that there was a small white projectile in Chat's left shoulder. She peeled it off and Chat stirred immediately.
"M'Lady?" he said drowsily, she was so happy to see him well that she threw herself to his arms without thinking fast enough and because of this momentary distraction she got shot again, this time on her leg, but Chat peeled off the projectile almost as soon as it landed and she was awake and alert again.
"Let's get this over with." Chat said determinedly and took his baton out to dodge the projectiles he threw at them.
"Children, it's time for me to give you a lesson on respect!" Drillmaster exclaimed as they fought him, but Ladybug's mind was still somewhere else and this caused her to lose her balance getting herself shot again.
"Are you alright M'Lady?" Said Chat as he pulled off the projectile from her cheek with his thumb.
"I will be when we're done with this Akuma. Lucky Charm!" She yelled, and the ladybugs in her Jojo produced a small red and black flower hairpin.
"What are you gonna do with that? Give him an updo?" Chat asked protecting her by dodging paper projectiles with his baton.
"I've seen this somewhere..." And then she remembered. She looked down from the roof and saw Alba who was still freeing some victims of the projectiles, her Ladybug's vision made her see that Alba was wearing a hairpin with a flower that looked exactly like the one the Lucky Charm had created, with the same ladybug vision she also saw Chat as something she was supposed to use. "Chat, the ceiling, do your thing!" She said jumping from the roof.
"At your service My Lady. Cataclysm!" He screamed and broke the ceiling with the touch of his hand, this made the villain fall to the classroom below it, but before he could stand up from the scums, Ladybug was entering through the window with Alba in her arms.
"Professor," she said in a sweet yet brave voice. Drillmaster was enraged at first, clearing the remaining dust from his black jacket, but as soon as he saw me, he froze, all his anger drew from his face, and he froze for a minute it was as if he had shot himself with a projectile. "You don't have to do this," I said as she got a step nearer to him. Ladybug and Chat Noir stepped aside not entirely understanding what was happening.
"I have to! Or else the students won't respect me!" He shout, although he was angry, his tone was more like one regret as if he was somewhat ashamed of his behavior
"There are better ways to gain their respect," I said getting closer yet. "You're a great teacher!" Now I was right in front of him. Chat was now looking at the scene gaping like a fool, Ladybug was surprised as well, yes, her miraculous had told her to use me, but she wasn't expecting something like this.
"I have to..." I touched his hand and he didn't back away, he couldn't he was frozen by the sight of me, and I was looking at him in the eye. Using this distraction, I took the blowpipe from his hand.
"You don't!" I held the weapon in my two hands and used all my strength to break it before he even reacted to what had happened. Without losing time Ladybug shook off her confusion and captured the Akuma, purifying it. She also took the flower which was still in her hands and used it to restore all of the things that had been broken or damaged.
Meanwhile, Drillmaster was now prostrated on the floor and now I was kneeling right next to him when the effect of the Akuma wore off completely. The broken blowpipe turned out to be a single yellow and white straw.
"Professor LeBeau?" I said shyly.
"Miss Thomas?" He looked at me confused and then looked at the heroes that were standing next to him. "Ladybug? Chat Noir? What happened? Don't tell me I was..." All of us nodded quietly at the same time, he looked down to his shaky hands as though they were dirty. "I didn't hurt any of you, did I?" He looked especially at me with big blue sparkly eyes, his sweaty black curly hair was sticking to his forehead, but he still looked handsome.
"You didn't and even if you had, it's not your fault." Ladybug said making Mr. LeBeau look up at her.
"She's right, Hawk Moth took advantage of a moment of weakness, he's the monster, he's the one that should be ashamed of himself." Chat said confidently.
"Just so you know," I said, making him look at me again "You are a great teacher, and students will learn to respect you with time." He smiled at me but did nothing afterward.
"I'll take Alba with me," Ladybug said. "can you take care of Mr. LeBeau, chaton?" She said looking at him, now she was a little flustered, but he didn't notice and limited his answer to a nod. I stood up to go with Ladybug who carried me and flung out of the window.
"What on earth was that?!" Marinette asked as they reached a secluded corner of the school, where she transformed back into Marinette.
"Listen, Mari, as much as I want to explain everything, I know that Chat will also want to know all the details and I honestly refuse to tell the story twice so, come to patrol tonight and all shall be revealed," I said without looking at Marinette in the eye for fear of losing my cool.
"So, there is a story to tell," Marinette said crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.
"There's always a story to tell dear," I answered nonchalantly. "Just not now... However, I would like to know the story behind your distractions today, how many times did you get shot at today?"
"three..." Marinette answered looking down.
"three! That's way too much for a superhero! You're lucky the effect of the projectiles was reversible, or else Hawk Moth would have your miraculous by now! Spill, what's your deal?"
"There's no..."
"There's always a story, Marinette" I repeated. "Whether you want to talk about it or not. But know this, I've seen Chat Noir's face on your thoughts the whole day." Marinette was taken aback, but she should have known by now. Alba knows, Alba always knows.
"He's just a friend, and that's the way it should stay," Marinette answered quickly her face growing hotter every moment but her eyes were looking sparkly and red.
"Correct, that's the way it should stay, but it's not the way you want it to be, am I right?" Marinette's eyes glittered but it wasn't out of happiness.
"I..." Marinette was about to deny it, but I looked at her with an accusing raised an eyebrow, she knows better than to lie to me, even without my powers I just know when a person is lying. "I have no choice than telling you the truth, do I?" I nodded. "If you must know... I must be going mad! I... I can't live without him... The days he doesn't come to my house are like a nightmare, 'cause I wait for him every night, even against my better judgment, and if he doesn't come I feel lost! Look, I know this is madness! I can't ever hope to be with him, I know it's dangerous! Hawk Moth could use it against us, and we could lose our miraculouses."
"Not to mention that you would be distracted, as you were today." Marinette shrugged.
"I want him only for me... Sometimes I wish..." Marinette stopped herself.
"just say it." I encouraged her.
"I wish I could tell him... tell him who I am, everything would be so easy... No matter how close we are I feel like there's always something drawing us apart!"
"Something like what?" Marinette sighed, I knew I was pushing her hard to talk about her feelings and I also knew she didn't like to feel pressured by anyone, but she needed it this time. Just this time, I'm gonna push a little harder.
"I... I feel like... it's the fact that I have to keep this... huge secret from him..." She gestured with her hands. "I mean, I know he's keeping a secret from me, but that's just the thing, he doesn't know that I'm keeping a secret for him and that just makes me feel guilty, It's like I'll never be able to be fully honest with him. It's like there's always going to some sort of wall between us."
Translation of the lyrics:
But why!
I dare not say anything to him.
I want him only for me,
his light, his smile,
crossing for one night,
this wall between us!
[*So, apparently the Lycée Carnot is the school on which the Collège Françoise Dupont (Marinette's and Adrien's school) is based on, so I decided to use it here.
About that, I wanted to make some clarifications hehe. I've made some research and it turns out that a Collège is a French school it lasts four years and is for children around 11-15 years old. Now, a Lycée is another type of school, but this one lasts three years and the ages go from 15-18 years old.
So, as seen in 'Befana,' Marinette is 14 years old (Adrien must be around that age range as well, I have reasons to think he is a few months older), this means that during the series she is in the third year of Collège. In this fanfic, they have been fighting Hawk Moth for two years total, and now they are in the first year of Lycée and so they are 15 (going on 16 XD), but Alba is 16 since her birthday comes before the start of the new year.
Anyways I just wanted to make that clear.
Peace
-SDG]