Thank you so much for joining in this story! Since classes start tomorrow and I'll be applying some diagnostic exams, updates will try to be at least every 2-3 days so I don't leave you hanging.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Open your eyes

Saturdays were meant to wake up without an alarm, enjoy the laziness of being in pyjamas until noon and ignore responsibilities for at least a couple of hours. Maybe watching reruns of shows or play videogames for a while. Go out with friends or a date to the park, the movies, and any fun activity to do in a group.

Marinette woke up, stretched her arms and rubbed her eyes, greeted by a clear day and a cool breeze coming from the hatch of her rooftop.

"Hnngh" she yawned, smiling when Tikki flew towards her with a smile on her own "good morning Tikki."

"Good afternoon you mean" Tikki pointed at her phone where Marinette glanced at it, eyes widening in surprise. It was past noon and she had slept soundly. Her eyes felt a little puffy but out of that, she felt good. Her mind, while still reminiscing of last events, wasn't clouded by the pressure in her chest.

"Oh, oh I overslept a lot,"

"You needed the rest," Tikki said while Marinette walked to her bathroom "how are you feeling today?"

"I feel better?" Marinette smiled at the kwami, following her routine to prepare for the day "I feel… like I can take over the world."

She laughed at that, washing her face and checking her reflection on the mirror. Her eyes weren't red from the crying but she did have the pillow mark still on her cheek, her hair a tangled mess of strands popping out of her loose pigtails.

She took a shower, enjoying the scent of vanilla and roses as she did, humming while she dried off and fixed her hair, coming out at last in a fresh set of clothes. She grabbed her phone and went downstairs to find her mom in the kitchen, sipping some tea as she watched the news.

"Oh good afternoon Marinette," she smiled as her daughter gave her a kiss on the cheek "how are you feeling darling?"

"I feel good maman" Marinette smiled "sorry I overslept I-"

"Marinette," her mother put her mug down, "it is alright, and the school must have been really difficult this week, wasn't it?"

"I uh," Marinette sat down next to her mom, taking a fruit from the bowl to eat "yes, it was rough."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

And she did. At least the parts that she could tell without revealing her as Ladybug. She told Sabine about how her classmates had pushed her aside, how they hadn't taken into consideration her feelings about the seat arrangement, how upset she had got at Alya for diminishing her feelings. She almost stopped herself from sharing Lila's threats, but Marinette knew it was best to tell her mom that.

"And I know you want me to go to the principal for this," she said when she noticed Sabine's frown "but if I go, everyone will side with her."

"I understand," Sabine said after a sigh, taking Marinette's hands in hers and squeezing them tight "and you are very brave to want to face this. I don't want you to feel lonely when they were such nice people, and if I could I would bring them all down with a good sermon."

Marinette chuckled at that.

"What about Adrien? Wouldn't he still be on your side? Help you clarify things with Alya?"

"Ah, no, I-I mean" Marinette looked down, "he said that as long as he and I know the truth, it doesn't really matter? Because if I called her out Lila would get akumatized and people would get hurt."

To Marinette's surprise, Sabine frowned even more, holding Marinette by the shoulders so she would look at her.

"And weren't you hurt by her lies? Sweetie, emotional hurt is also getting hurt."

"I mean yes but,"

"Adrien is a sweet boy," Sabine said "and I know how you feel about him Marinette. To have your first crush, your first love so passionate is a beautiful feeling, but that doesn't mean he is perfect in everything he does or say."

Marinette had started to feel her cheeks warm up at the mention of 'love' and 'feelings' mixed with Adrien in the sentence, but it was as if the air in her lungs had vanished. She didn't think Adrien was perfect, did she?

"Maybe you should tell him that the next time you see him," Sabine said, "your feelings are also important Marinette."

Marinette nodded and hugged her mom, relieved when Sabine hugged her and patted her head, reassuring her that things were going to be alright.

"Thanks, maman,"

"Always honey," she smiled at her daughter "so what will you do today? It is a nice day to go out."

"I think I'll go find some inspiration" Marinette smiled, glad they had changed the subject "I've been meaning to start a new project but a fresh view would be nice."

"That sounds lovely,"

Marinette kissed her mom's cheek again and went to fetch her things, waving at her on the way out. She took a deep breath out of the bakery and made her way to wherever her feet wanted to go.

The day was nice, a clear sky and fresh breeze that caused lots of people to go out and enjoy the day. She passed by a crêperie and bought one to share with Tikki as she walked, careful to sneak bits to the kwami in her purse.

When she realized, she was by the river, where she finally took a seat on an empty bench and pulled out her sketchbook, tapping the pencil against the paper, waiting for an idea to form in her mind.

Yet as she hummed and traced lines, she couldn't help but to remember her mother's advice. Maybe, just maybe, she had been putting Adrien on a pedestal. And she did have his schedule memorized, the many photos on her walls that had been –she frowned- broadcasted on live television. She had stolen his phone for crying out loud.

"Maybe my mom is right," Marinette sighed, putting the pencil down and pulling out her phone. There were no new messages nor notifications, and for a moment Marinette thought about calling any from her contact list, to have someone either confirm or deny the advice she had just received.

She didn't think much as she pressed the call button, receiving an answer after three beeps.

"So much for a chill day,"

"Hello to you too Mauro" Marinette called as she poked the paper with the pencil, "I did wake up way later than usual but I wanted to get some fresh air."

"That's not so bad," Marinette couldn't hear much on Mauro's side of the phone, "I myself have been getting to know the town's este…, the…how do you call them? The things that look like a snail shell, like district and all,"

"Arrondissements?"

"That, but if you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears,"

Marinette mused about it. Yesterday had been proof enough for her to trust Mauro, but even then, she still felt as if she had her guard up.

"You say you know my story,"

"Yep,"

"Then you know about my f…" she closed her eyes and took a deep breath "my feelings for Adrien."

There was a loud honk on the other side of the line, followed by Mauro muttering something in Spanish.

"Yes, I am very well aware of your feelings for pan Bimbo,"

"What did you call him?"

"I mean Adrien," he said "since this is a phone call I guessed you wouldn't want me shouting it all over the street," he sighed, and Marinette heard the sound of water, making her turn to see if he was around the area "I really hope this is not a 'can I know what he feels' kind of call-"

"What? No, it's not about that-"

"-because Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

Marinette put the phone away from her face and stared at it for a long time, put it back on her ear and groaned so loud it made Mauro laugh.

"How dare you also use puns?"

"In my defense, I did not make that one, Mark Twain did," Mauro said after he finished laughing "but if Bim- Adrien is the next step on your list, then we can work something out."

"Why denial?" she squinted "answer me that first."

"Do I really have to?"

Marinette heard it his voice out of the phone and looked up to find Mauro walking down the stairs, unaware of her presence. She hung up, grabbed her things and walked towards him before he could notice the call had ended.

"Bur- oh hey," he said, "I guess this is a I do have to answer."

"Yes, also why do you dislike Adrien so much?"

"Dislike is a strong word" Mauro shrugged "and I don't dislike him. I just need the boy needs to seriously grow a spine."

Marinette frowned.

"I will tell him," she squared her shoulders "how his advice is not helpful, and how I'm the one who got hurt out of Lila's lies."

Mauro smiled.

"That's good to hear, and maybe that'll make him learn at last."

Marinette returned the smile, but then frowned as she remembered who she was talking to.

"You didn't have anything to do with my morning, did you?"

"Nope," Mauro showed his hands, clean from ink, as well as his clothes "why? Did you come to a revelation of your own?"

Marinette mentioned about her chat with her mom, the advice she had given her, earning a noise of agreement from Mauro.

"Your mom is wise and she cares a whole lot about you" Mauro smiled at her "and I reaffirm, I had nothing to do with it; that was all you."

"I just had to be sure of it,"

"I understand" he pulled out a folded paper from his pants and opened it up, blank for Marinette to see "but part of my deal for you is that I will not intervene unless you agree for me to do so, that was all Marinette Dupain-Cheng magic, but back to your boy."

"He's not…" Marinette sighed "I'm guessing you agree with what she said."

"Oh a hundred percent," Mauro nodded, putting the paper back in his pocket "I would listen to your mother that knows about romance than me on this one. I only see the facts."

"So…does that mean I should just give up on my crush? "

"What? No, no ok," he rubbed his eyes and sighed "I was hoping not to get in romance tangles," he put his hands together, like he was about to pray and stayed quiet for a moment, leaving Marinette confused as to what was going on.

"No one but you gets to decide that," he tried again "remember the 'not wanting to manipulate' part? I'm still very much on board with that plan,"

"Then I don't understand," Marinette groaned "Monday will arrive and I won't know what to do, Lila will keep lying about everything and everyone else will either go to her side or remain silent."

"Then have your allies back" Mauro sighed "for me to create a scenario where everyone gets a happy ending? That would take me days, and this is your story Marinette,"

"You've said that already, and the only ally I have is you."

"What about cat boy?"

Marinette frowned at him.

"Let me guess, you have something against him too."

"Not going to lie, Chat is a lot of times a good partner to Ladybug," Mauro said, "sure he does take the hit a lot, possessed and what not but when it goes down to it, he is there for you."

"I'm sensing a but in your next sentence,"

"However" Mauro grinned, earning an eye roll from Marinette "you have to admit he gets his personal feelings too much in the way and that has compromised your missions, more than once."

Marinette thought back on the times that had happened. Two times to be exact. And in both, she had been the one to apologize for…

Apologize for what? For having her own feelings? For putting the safety of Paris over a problem that could have been solved in another place at another time?

"I should really talk to that cat," Marinette frowned, her foot tapping against the concrete "but that doesn't answer why you brought him up as an ally."

"Ok, the next part is tricky" he pointed at her purse "because you more likely will say no and fair is fair, but by this point of the game? I think it's best to stop having so many secrets."

"You can't tell me Chat Noir's identity" Marinette gasped, her purse revealing Tikki's worried eyes "that… that would be bad! We need to keep them safe, a secret to protect each other-"

"I know how that works Marinette," Mauro sighed, taking his pen and the paper he had folded, writing down as he spoke "Spider-man does it, Batman does it, and lots of super heroes do it," he scratched a word out, "but some of those heroes that are allies? Between them they know, they can help each other out."

"It wouldn't be fair for me to know and him to remain oblivious," Marinette countered back at him, Mauro shaking his head in response.

"I'm not blatantly telling you, you are figuring it out on your own," Mauro put the pen away and offered the paper not to Marinette but to Tikki that was observing from her purse "if there's a way to get you more allies on this fight? Then this is a risk you should consider taking."

"Would this mean he will figure it out?" Tikki asked and Mauro tried hard not to wince at the question.

"I mean he could try?" his voice went a little high, causing Marinette to raise an eyebrow "Chat Noir out of the mask…he's not that observant so, I would say it is a 40-60 situation."

Marinette looked down at Tikki who had a pensive expression as she read, then moved to Marinette's eyesight so she could read it. There was no name in the paragraph, as the others had been, but Marinette still felt a sense of nervousness creeping on her.

"What if this changes for worse?"

"Worst case scenario? I do a cheap out of 'and then they lost their memories' or something like that Mauro shrugged "I can give you time to decide, or to say you don't want to, figure another way to solve this out-"

"No," Marinette held the paper and looked at Tikki, who just nodded in approval "like you said, you are not telling me, who knows, maybe I won't get to figure it out."

Mauro took the paper back and checked once more everything was in order.

"Are you sure?"

"Most entirely" Marinette squared her shoulders "come on."

"All right," he cleared his throat and, after checking one last time at Marinette's face, proceeded to read out loud.

"They say the best way to hide a tree is to put it in a forest. Hidden in plain sight. For our heroine, the constant presence of her partner was like that, hidden in the most obvious of places. Magic wasn't the only thing protecting her identity, it was also the heart that played its part in avoiding the dots, the connections.

Yet enough was enough. The heroine needed to unfold the blind from her eyes. It was time for her to stand up and discover that the answer to who her masked ally, her confidant and partner, the name of the boy who had helped her so much, fought by her side, stood up to her as equal… it was time for her to realise… she had known the name for a long time.

It was time for the heroine to find the tree. It was time for the heroine to open her eyes."