Chapter 13
Je ne comprends pas ce que je veux,
Je ne peux pas tomber amoureux
D'où vient ce sentiment mystérieux?
It was around those days that things began to change.
Not for me though, I was still suffering from headaches. In fact, that day I had the most terrible one I've ever had in my life. Needless to say, I wasn't paying attention to the class. It was so bad that my body began to shake near the end of the period.
"Are you alright, Alba?" I heard Adrien's kind voice talking to me. This was when I finally opened my eyes to notice that we were nearly the only ones left in the room, other than the teacher, who was staring at me with a worried expression.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just a headache, I'll just take a pill, it'll pass," Though to tell the truth, I felt like I was about to faint.
"Alright, I don't know if you heard, but Professor LeBeau just announced our final project and we're in it together,"
"Ah, can you believe it? The final project of our final year! I can't wait to graduate," I said sluggishly laying my head on my desk,
"I know, I admit I'm gonna miss it here," he sighed, "But come, the project is due tomorrow, we can work on it at the library before we go home. I already told my bodyguard to pick me up later."
"Tomorrow," I said without opening my eyes, "Tomorrow?" I squealed standing abruptly from my chair, "Why didn't you say so!" But the movement made my vision blurry, and I felt lightheaded, it was so bad that Adrien had to hold me so I didn't fall,
"I think you should go to see the nurse first,"
"Good idea." Adrien walked me to the infirmary where the nurse gave me a small green pill to swallow, saying it would make me feel better, and true to her word, I felt way better after a few minutes. Good enough to stand and follow Adrien, who stood guard outside of the door,
"Are you sure you're good enough to go to the library? We could wait a bit more,"
"Isn't the thing due tomorrow? Let's just get it over with," I sighed, I might not be the most responsible girl, but I always turn my assignments in on time. "What is it about?"
"Can't you read my mind?" He joked, giggling nervously,
"Not today kitten, this little head of mine is going through enough distress with my own thoughts, I just can't deal with yours or anyone else's for that matter."
He began to explain that we had to make a book report, and I couldn't imagine how we could do all that in a day.
When we reached the library, all the lights were off, but when Adrien turned them on, people appeared from under desks and behind shelves shouting:
"Happy birthday, Alba!" I was shocked for a moment longer than I want to admit, was it my birthday?
"Did you forget?" Marinette laughed, walking next to me holding a cake in her hands. She motioned for me to blow the candles, and when I did, I began to ask the obvious questions
"What day is today? How didn't I see it coming? How did you make a party in the library? What about the project?" They all laughed and led me to take a seat with them on the carpet floor. Maybe I didn't see the party coming because of my headaches, but how did I forget my own birthday? I was turning 18, 18 for heaven's sake!
"We are doing a project together," Adrien explained with a broad smile while Marinette handed him a piece of that gorgeous looking chocolate brigadeiro cake, "But is not due until next week. I was truly concerned about your headache when you fell for it, since today is Friday, I mean how did you not see that?" He lied to me! He actually lied to me and mocked me and I didn't see it, darn headache!
"Also, apparently the librarian is a friend of yours, so when I asked her if we could throw a little party in here, she gladly accepted as long as we left everything perfectly clean," Marinette explained. Madam Callie was always fun to talk to during my long visits to the library. How nice of her.
I greatly enjoyed my surprise party, and I wasn't the only one, everyone was happy and having a good time when Rose cheered,
"Let's play truth or dare!" People groaned and said it was the oldest game ever created, and that we should play video games instead, but Rose looked so excited about playing and so sad when no one wanted to play with her, that I said,
"I love that game! come on guys, it's my birthday, let's play!" They resigned to their fate and accommodated in a circle. Some seating on the floor while others brought some puff chairs and couches to seat while eating Cheetos and other chips.
They asked Alya about her first kiss, Rose was forced to sit with a book over her head for the rest of the game, Nino had to let Alya check his phone and Adrien confessed to being Ladybug's biggest fan. When it was Alix's turn to ask me, I chose truth,
"What is your biggest fear," She asked, but I thought about it for so long that she had to add, "Come on, don't come at me with that 'I'm not afraid of anything' act, there's gotta be something,"
"What about Lions?" "Snakes?" "Bugs?" "Heights?" Different people asked shuddering at the thought of them, but I just shook my head,
"None of those things can harm you unless you get close enough,"
"What about death," Mylène whispered loudly, shuddering at the thought,
"Death is like a lion without teeth, it might seem scary but it can't harm you, it's just the step between us and heaven," I explained but then I thought of something, "I guess what does scare me the most is the death of someone I love," I finished nonchalantly taking a sip of my soda.
"Ok, it's your turn, Alba, even if your answer was the lamest possible," Alix rolled her eyes, and I asked the next person. After another round, it was Alya's turn to ask Marinette,
"Who is your new crush?" All eyes were on her, and she turned red as a beetroot. Everyone knew she liked Adrien in the past (everyone except Adrien of course,) so they were all curious as to who was that mysterious person that had kicked Adrien from her heart. When I turned to see Adrien's reaction, he just took a long sip of his cup, in an effort to hide the color in his face.
Thankfully I had recovered my powers and was able to see that Adrien was more curious than he cared to admit and that Marinette was debating on what to say, because she couldn't say it was Adrien, for several reasons, a) He was sitting next to her, and b) Everybody, including herself, knew that she had given up on him years ago and c) if she said the truth, she could put the one she loved and herself in danger.
"DARE, I want dare," She squealed not knowing what else to say,
"Alright, then I dare you to kiss the person seating next to you," She said with a mischievous smile, but when Marinette's leaned in to kiss Alix's cheek, Alya cleared her throat and said, "I meant the other side."
Marinette's face turned white as paper, because the person next to her was none other than Adrien Agreste who was still sipping from his cup, how much liquid did that thing contain?
Marinette gathered herself and gave a quick peck on Adrien's cheek. But he hadn't been expecting her to, so he choked on his drink and began to cough, turning even redder from the effort. Marinette tried to help him patting gently on his back and repeatedly exclaiming, "Sorry, I'm so sorry."
Adrien had to step outside for a moment, and I couldn't help the smile spreading in my face, I had to bite my cheeks quickly before anyone noticed it. Not that anyone cared, as everyone else was laughing hysterically,
After Adrien came back, we continued to play our game, and after a few more turns somebody dared Adrien to prank-call his father. All color disappeared from his face and he began to giggle nervously,
"I don't think that's a good idea," He scratched the back of his head, but someone handed him a cellphone and he took it with shaking hands, "Okay, but what do I say to him,"
"Tell him that he ordered a pizza or something," Nino offered,
"No, tell him that his car got trucked," Alix suggested,
"No, no, tell him you got expelled!" Everyone looked at Kim as if he had suggested that Adrien should kill himself, and in a way he did. Gabriel Agreste would be furious if his son ever told him with something like that.
"I think I got it," He got the phone and typed his father's number, Adrien took a deep breath and tapped the green button. When he answered the call, Adrien said with his Chat Noir carefree tone (although only I recognized it as his Chat Noir facade,) "Hello sir, I have a missed call from this number," He put the phone on speaker,
"Who's speaking," Answered the cold voice of Gabriel Agreste,
"This is Anita, Anita Bath, you call me a-" Gabriel didn't let him finish because he hung up the phone. "I guess a pristine sense of humor doesn't run in the family," But everyone else laughed at how the joke had turned out.
When they got bored of playing truth or dare, they began to play video games on the giant tv. They were never my forte, but Marinette seemed to be having fun defeating everyone. Adrien and Max were the only ones good enough to actually present a challenge for her. But she won nonetheless, no one could ever beat her in this game so people started to scatter again.
Someone suggested to played just dance and various other activities. In truth, we were having so much fun together that we forgot to clean the room.
o0o
The evening came, and everybody went to their respective homes or evening activities, but everybody left earlier than they told Madam Callie they would.
Actually, Madam Callie arrived at the library with a small cupcake in her hands to give me as a birthday present, but when she stepped into the library, instead of finding a few teenagers having a small party, she was greeted by a room loitered with juice cups, cake crumbs, video game cases, and other remains scattered in the floor.
She was so astonished that she grabbed the cupcake in one hand and squeezed it, spilling more crumps on the floor, while she regretted so much letting the kids have a party and cursed under her breath. Her disappointment was so great, that a black and purple butterfly landed on the cupcake wrap,
"Fly-tipper, the kids you trusted to take care of your precious library betrayed you and now it's up to you to clean after their mess? I don't think that's fair, why not give them a taste of their own medicine? Show them how disastrous you can be! Show them that you're not just the meek woman they think you are. In return, you must retrieve for me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous!"
"Thank you, Hawk Moth, Marinette is gonna pay for this!"
o0o
Adrien had been thinking about Marinette a lot that day. Why did he choke when she kissed him? She had kissed him before. It didn't make any sense at all.
He knew now that he would have some sort of relationship with Ladybug in the future, he couldn't think this way about Marinette, it would be like cheating on Ladybug, especially now that things were going so great between them, besides, you wouldn't want to be the one getting on Ladybug's bad side.
Yet their feelings for each other were growing and he knew that Ladybug felt a lot for him. However, there was still a great wall between them, separating them, they couldn't reveal their identities to each other. Hawk Moth could use it against them or something worse could happen. Their feelings for each other were already dangerous as they were, it didn't matter how much Chat wished it was different, they had to keep their relationship strictly professional. However, a furtive smile, a few hugs, and several winks wouldn't hurt anyone, right? He had shared some of those moments with Marinette, and she was just a friend, right?
Marinette... he had resigned himself to seeing her as a friend, but why did she make him so nervous lately? Or now that he thought about it, she had startled him several times just this month, like when he was trying to help her with her Math homework, he couldn't stop staring at her hands. They looked so tiny and perfect. How he wanted to hold them! But stopped himself when he thought of Ladybug.
"This will all be better once we're off to college," Adrien mumbled to himself,
"Did you say something?" Plagg asked Adrien with a mouthful of cheese,
"Nothing, I just—"
"Let me guess, you were babbling about Ladybug or Marinette or both!" He mocked him,
"I wasn't—" he tried to defend himself but he knew it was useless. He hated to admit it, but Plagg knew him too well, after all, they've been together for more than four years now, and the relationship between a kwami and its holder is much deeper than it's possible to explain. "You know what," Adrien pronounced suddenly, "I'm gonna pay our friend Marinette a little visit, it's been a while,"
"You go there like once a month, you're almost like—"
"Plagg, claws out," Adrien sang and transformed into Chat Noir, who had grown almost a head taller and had more pronounced muscles now that he was 17. His powers had also grown, as he was faster now than ever and his senses were more refined.
He leaped from his window and ran the direction of Marinette's bakery. But what he saw when he arrived was not Marinette's bakery or maybe it was, but it was covered in something green and smelly and disgusting,
"What's all this," He mumbled to himself just when something hit him on the back of his head and he fell from the building.
o0o
Marinette was pleased with how Alba's birthday party had gone. She had planned it carefully, telling everyone last minute, even Madam Callie, the librarian, so that Alba couldn't read their thoughts. Actually, now that she thought about it, she would have to thank her on Monday, she had been very nice by allowing them to have a party in the library. What a nice lady she was.
"Wasn't it a great party, Tikki? Alba was truly surprised, we were lucky she had that headache," Marinette giggled, talking to her kwami while she sat on the chair of her balcony.
"There's something that's been bugging me about it though," Tikki sighed, flying around the plants, taking in the scent of the blooming flowers and enjoying the cool spring air,
"What is it?" Marinette asked absently looking at the starry sky.
"Didn't she asked you to clean the room after you were finished?" Marinette's eyes widened and she popped up from her chair,
"Oh no Tikki, I totally forgot!" She screeched, "What am I gonna do? Should I go to school earlier tomorrow and clean everything?"
"Tomorrow is Saturday, isn't it? But then, what other option do we have? The school is already closed by now," Tikki flew in front of Marinette.
"Yeah, I guess that's what I'm gonna do, besides, it's not like Madam Callie will go back there today, and the mess can't be that bad," She shrugged. But when Marinette sat back on her chair, a smelly giant green ball of some gooey substance fell over her,
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" A gruff voice screamed from below her building, "You're gonna pay for trashing my library!" The Lady continued to throw green bombs to her house, but apparently, she hadn't seen her.
"Oh no Tikki, I think it's too late already," Tikki nodded, allowing Marinette to transform into her alter ego. She ran away from her now trashed home, in the opposite direction from where she heard the villain's voice since she didn't want her to see her come out of her house.
What Marinette didn't see was that the villain entered her house, trashed her bedroom and captured her parents in a gooey mess, but when she didn't find her, she went out to her balcony and began to look around searching for her. That was when she saw Chat approaching, leaping from one building to another
"That's Chat Noir, fly-tipper," A dark voice said to the lady when a purple butterfly appeared on her face. "Go, and get me my miraculous,"
"At your service, Hawk Moth." That was when she knocked Chat down.
o0o
When Chat recovered his senses, Ladybug stood in front of him.
"Chat Noir, can you hear me?" she stared him with a worried expression,
"Loud and clear my lady, what happened?" He groaned rubbing the back of his neck. Chat noticed his surroundings, they were hiding in a poorly lit alley, with trash containers and bags scattered around.
"That villain fly-tipper, she keeps trashing the city, literally! She knocked you out but I found you just before she had a chance to take your miraculous. You were out just a few seconds," He smiled tenderly at her,
"I'm glad you were there to save me," She smiled back at him and caressing his cheek tenderly with her hand, but then she announced,
"We gotta go Chaton, she won't stop until we stop her," They stood up and began to run following the trail of spoiled food and waste. They finally found her, shooting green balls at their school,
"Hey, fly-tipper," Chat yelled at her when they were close enough, "It was really trashy of you hitting me before I acknowledged your presence,"
"Be careful, Chat Noir or things could get messy," she ran towards him, but Ladybug captured her using her yo-yo. Fly-tipper recovered quickly and pulled the string on Ladybug's yo-yo, sending her crashing against Chat Noir.
They stood up and continued to fight her, but she continued to shoot balls of trash towards them. They dodged most of the attacks but they couldn't help getting trashed with a few of them.
"I bet the Akuma is in her canon," Ladybug said noticing that she never parted from the weapon which was almost her size, and had the shape of a cupcake wrapper, but larger and was apparently empty,
"Well then, let's go get it," Chat replied cleaning the smelly green substance from his clothes.
When they were about to surround her, Chat heard a buzzing sound,
"Something is coming," He said to Ladybug,
"Where? I can't see anything," She told him dodging another attack,
"Cover me, I'll go see," Chat ran in the direction he heard the sound and climbed over some building where he saw it, a few streets away, but approaching faster and faster. An army of flies coming in their direction, he warned Ladybug enjoying her alarmed expression, because yes, Ladybug hated bugs.
Before it was too late, Ladybug called her lucky charm, but the weirdest thing happened when nothing appeared. She only got her yo-yo back.
"Did your lucky charm just dump you?" Chat joked, but Ladybug was too worried to argue, and the flies were getting closer so they began to run away from them jumping into the nearest fountain.
"What does it mean?" Ladybug mumbled to herself, she looked around but she couldn't see anything to use, only her yo-yo. But then an image came to her mind, a memory of the future, she remembered herself flying, and she knew what she had to do.
Chat stared at her while she rearranged the chord of her yo-yo to make it seem like a tiny backpack. She put it on and then it began to shake as a pair of glowing wings grew from it.
At first, Ladybug was clumsy trying to control her wings, but she got the hang of it after a moment, mostly. Chat was astonished by the sight, tongue tied for a second, but then said the most interesting thing he could think at the moment
"I've always thought you were an angel my lady, but this confirms it," Chat exclaimed still in awe, but she was too delighted to notice what he was saying. She was flying! She was actually flying but then flies flew towards her, she panicked and her wings stopped working and she fell from a considerable height, luckily Chat was there and caught her before she hit the floor, but now she knew exactly what they had to do.
"Get ready Chat, I'm going to fly you right unto her," She grabbed Chat by his arms and began to fly in the direction where the tornado of flies gathered around the lady. She dropped him through the opening at the top. Chat pulled out his baton while he fell and whacked fly-tipper's canon breaking it in the process, releasing the black butterfly.
Ladybug landed inside the tornado retrieving her yo-yo from her back catching the butterfly and purifying it. Right after that, she used her yo-yo again and used her miraculous ladybug to fix everything around her.
"Wasted!" Chat said to the Lady who when back to being the normal and kind Madam Callie.
While the ladybugs fixed everything, Ladybug kept squealing and giving excited little jumps,
"Chat, can you believe it? I can fly!" She beamed at him,
"I can see that, my Lady, now I'm jealous," he jested but then winked at her. His comment did nothing to turn her excitement down, but then her earings began to beep, she exclaimed
"Oh, I gotta go." She began to run, but then stopped in her place, "Wait a minute, I can fly!" She took her yo-yo to put it back on her back and began to fly when her wings expanded, "Chat I can fly!" She repeated before disappearing into the night sky, though Chat could still hear her excited shouts.
Chat smiled warmly at her and then turned his gaze to see Madam Callie,
"Do you need me to drop you off somewhere?" He asked her kneeling next to her,
"No, I..." She stammered, "I live nearby," She looked gloomy, unlike she ever did, so Chat put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault Ma'am, Hawk Moth took advantage of you,"
"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" She looked at him, with worry shining in her eyes,
"You were mainly after Marinette, but Ladybug fixed everything, so she should be fine, don't worry about it anymore," Marinette! He should go see how she was since he never got to see her earlier.
The lady nodded and began to walk away, but a little surprise awaited her, because when Ladybug used her miraculous, she also cleaned the library that had been trashed before the attack.
As for Chat, He began to walk away, but then he increased his speed, running probably at the fastest he had ever run, he needed to make sure Marinette was alright.
Once he was on the building next to Marinette's home, he was greeted by the weirdest view. Ladybug was circling over Marinette's bakery.
It was too dark for her to see him, so he watched her for another moment, she was surely enjoying her new wings. He was about to call out for her when she landed in Marinette's balcony just when her transformation fell. Marinette standing in her place.
I don't understand what I want,
I can't fall in love.
Where does this mysterious feeling come from?