Sorry, everyone. With school being tough, I was a bit slow on my writing today.
Also just to let y'all know- I have started writing a new story called "Into The Forest: The Miraculous and the Misfortunate". I'm writing it with my wonderful friend and coauthor Littlemixup. If y'all want to check it out it's on her list of stories.
I hope you like it. And enjoy finding out where Chat's ring went (looking at you Epcot).
Chapter 4- Blue's Clues
Adrien had been missing for three days, and this lead Marinette into complete panic. As a result, no one was above suspicion.
Marinette went through the list of those who fit the criteria in her head.
"Married friends..." she wondered,"who are our married friends?"
Nino.
Alya.
Chloe.
Ivan.
Mylène.
Kim.
Ondine...?
Marinette wasn't sure if Kim's wife counted as a "friend". She was more like a "good aquaintence"?
She shrugged and added her to the list. As she repeated the names, a thought occured to her.
"What if Ellen's wedding was supposed to represent our wedding? Then it could mean a single friend who was with us when we got married".
That could mean a lot of people, so Marinette stuck to the most suspicious people at the wedding.
Luka, who went from homeless bum to wealthy wedding crasher.
Kagami, the girl she had never trusted.
Nathalie was also included. After all, she went from Gabriel's loyal assistant of many years to being his lovestruck girl in a matter of months
Nino. Alya. Chloe. Ivan. Mylène. Kim. Ondine. Luka. Kagami. Nathalie.
The names clung to the back of her mind.
Marinette sat on her couch, pondering the situation.
"Criminals need motive, means, and opportunity," the woman thought, remembering a crime show's explanation.
She wrote the names on a board and began to think.
Alya would need motive... could she be in love with Adrien? That would be strange, but she accepted it as a temporary motive.
Did Alya have means? Yes. With her Miraculous she could beat Adrien, if he wasn't suspecting it.
Marinette thought about the last point. Opportunity. Alya had made it to her house in 5 minutes... Alya could have been close enough to abduct her husband.
Suspect #1 Alya Lahiffe.
Nino... could he have a motive? Jealousy? Marinette considered the past. Gasping, she realised that Nino had had feelings for her all those years ago when she and Adrien had fought Animan... but he had left that crush for Alya...right? There is no way her friend was a consolation prize... right?
Marinette checked the motive box by Nino anyways. You can never be too careful.
Did he have the strength? Of course he did. With his Miraculous, and the element of suprise, Nino could disable his friend easily.
Now to opportunity. Nino had taken longer to show up to her house, but then again, she had no clue how long Adrien could have been missing.
"It is quite possible he could have kidnapped him, then returned home before Alya got my call," Marinette mused.
Suspect #2 Nino Lahiffe.
Up next was Chloe. Did she have motive?
Marinette considered her sudden change of heart at the wedding. Chloe had begun to say "Adrikens" then cut herself off... hiding jealousy perhaps?
Marinette decided it was a possibility, and continued. Did she have means? She no longer held a miraculous, but she could easily hire a henchman.
Marinette was unsure if Chloe had returned to America. For now, she assumed Chloe had not.
Suspect #3 Chloe Bourgeois.
After Chloe was Ivan. He had no apparent motive whatsoever, so Marinette scratched his name off the board.
Myléne? She seemed just as content with Ivan as he was with her. And unlike her husband she definitely didn't have the strength to tear a door down. A second name was crossed out.
Then Kim. Last she had heard, his marriage was a little rocky... maybe he was jealous of what the group of Collège Françoise Dupont Alumni called "the perfect couple".
He was definitely strong enough, as he was gifted with a muscular build, and worked hard to maintain it as a professional bodybuilder.
Shd had no clue where he lived now, so she decided that he might very well have had the chance to kidnap her husband.
Suspect #4 Lê Chiến Kim.
His wife, Ondine seemed relatively innocent. She had no apparent motive, and while she was strong, she didn't have door tearing muscles. Another scratch.
At this point Marinette reached the blue haired devil's name. Luka Couffaine. He most definitely had a motive. He was acutely jealous of Adrien. Luka had become quite muscular since his rise to stardom. Whether or not he was at door-rending strength was debatable, but it was a moot point; he had an alibi.
Which brought Marinette to the next name: Kagami Tsurugi. If she was Luka's alibi, it stood to reason that he was her alibi as well.
Two more names found themselves with strike marks through them.
As Marinette scratched their names out, Luka and Kagami began to talk some kilometres away.
"If you really want this plan to work, you have to tell her, " Kagami said, reaching for his hands.
He accepted them, looking at her pensively.
"Luka. Do you really want the plan to work?" She questioned, noticing his penetrating gaze.
"Um... yeah. Yes, I do," he assured her, as well as himself,"I'll go tonight, and tell her everything".
Kagami looked nervous, but responded clearly. "Well you don't need to tell her EVERYTHING," she stated,"some things might be better to avoid". Her last phrase seemed a bit cryptic.
Luka nodded, his head, though to be honest, he wasn't completely sure what was going on.
As Marinette continued her list at her flat, she also found herself confused.
Nathalie was the last name on the list. Perhaps she was jealous of all the attention Gabriel gave to his son? It seemed strange as Gabriel was out of the country, and had chosen to take Nathalie with him, but perhaps she felt her boyfriend (they had officially started dating a month after the wedding) still paid too much attention to his son.
She was quite tech savvy, and it wouldn't astonish Marinette if she had a technological way to smash the door open and incapacitate Adrien.
And while she was officially "gone" she frequently returned to Paris while on trips with Gabriel.
Marinette smiled, thinking how awkward it would be for Gabriel to need to ask his assistant to fly to a different country to pick up something he forgot, especially when he was dating her.
"Focus," she reminded herself.
Suspect #5 Nathalie Sancoeur.
The heroine took a moment to envision herself as a detective, pouring through her thoughts for any other suspicious characters.
Two came to mind.
The first was Nathaniel Kurtzberg. She had seen him intermittently throughout the last several years. Every time she saw him it was obvious that his childhood crush had not yet faded (including st the wedding). However, while he may have a motive, he definitely didn't have the physical strength.
She moved to the other name, Lila Rossi.
Lila was sickly in love with Adrien. So much so that she had spent over 2 years in a psychiatric ward for trying to kill a model who had idly flirted with him.
She by no means had the strength to break down the door, but with her ability to "adjust the truth" she could easily persuade someone else to do it for her.
The only thing missing point was opportunity. Marinette was fairly certain that Lila was still required to stay at the institution.
She made a mental note to check with the hospital to see if anything had changed, hoping that Lila was not a suspect.
"If Lila has Kitty, we are all screwed," Marinette thought.
Adrien looked at his captor. "I'm screwed," he thought to himself.
"Hey, um... 'Sweety'," he choked,"have you ever seen Blues Clues? You know the little kids show?"
"No," they replied, "why?"
"I was just thinking about something I wanted to show you from it... do you have your phone on you by chance?"
His 'warden' reluctantly handed him the phone, and Adrien typed in the show's name on YouTube, saving it to his playlist before picking a random result.
Of course his real reason was to give Marinette a hint; A rather simple one. That he was in fact leaving her clues, and that these seemingly random things weren't actually random coincidences.
After watching he commented, "wouldn't you love to just live in a cute little house like that, not worried about city life or the cares of the world?"
"Um sure, I guess. Anywhere is good, as long as it is with you, Adrien". The response sent a tingle down his spine.
"Anyways, I need to leave for a quick errand dear. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to lock you in the room".
"Where is here?" He asked as the villain was leaving.
They smiled. "That's the thing about living in a mansion, you don't even recognize parts of your own home. But don't worry, we'll be leaving before Gabriel returns".
Adrien and Marinette groaned in frustration, though kilometres apart.
"Why are Nino and my names circled on a list?" A voice asked from behind Marinette.
"No reason," she squeaked, tucking the paper under a newspaper on the coffee table.
Alya shot her a distrustful glance and removed the newspaper.
She read the columns.
Suspect.
Motive.
Means.
Opportunity.
Marinette almost fainted when, after a moment of silence, Alya began to laugh.
It began as a chuckle and ended as a roaring guffaw.
"Y-you... hahahahhaha, you think that I might h-hav-- hahahahhahahahhaha... you think I could have kdinapped hahahahhaha Adrien? Me?" Alya held up her arms to show two small biceps protruding.
"Wow, Mari, I didn't realize you were THAT paranoid! I mean good list of suspects...but my motive is 'in love with Adrien?"? Like, I didn't like him when we first met him, I didn't like him when I saw his face plastered through the city. I didn't like him when I married Nino. Or when I forced two beautiful babies out of my body. I can say with 100% sincerity that Adrien 'is just a friend'".
The two girls burst out laughing, and Nino entered the small living room.
"In her worry Marinette branded us as suspects," Alya explained, gesturing to the paper.
Nino chuckled and tried to join in the laughs.
"No worries Mari. I was just reading a fan fiction, did you know people write fan fictions about you and Chat Noir?"
He realized he didn't finish his story and continued,"Anyways, in this fiction I really like, your civilian persona gets pregnant from a one night stand with Chat Noir. Fiction you learns who Chat is as a civilian, and like real life you actually know him. But he is in love with Ladybug, so he tries the 'just friends' thing with the civilian you, not realizing he is gonna be a dad. So story-you doesn't tell him. It is sooo good, dude".
Marinette looked in confusion, wondering what his point was.
"So basically, it could always be worse. You could secretly be pregnant and not able to tell Adrien because of extraneous circumstances," he offered.
Marinette began to cry the unintentionally cutting remark, and Alya elbowed him in the ribs.
"Nice going," she hissed, shooing him away.
However, while her elbow and voice told him to go away, her eyes communicated, "send me the link to that fan fiction".
He walked off and Alya soothed her friend.
"I'm sorry, Nino didn't know. It's ok Marinette, I bet Adrien is going to knock on the door at any moment".
Knock. Knock.
Marinette ran to the door, and threw it open (an unwise decision for the recently repaired door).
In the faded evening starlight stood a silhouette. One that she recognized. One that she loved.
She loved the shaggy hair, and the cat ears, and the sleek black costume.
As Chat opened his mouth to speak, she ran to him.
Without thinking she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in for a deep kiss; the most passionate she could offer.
Marinette felt her tongue slide across his, and he returned the motion. She placed one hand on his chest and the other behind his cat ear, scratching it softly. This caused him to let out a low gravely purr.
She stopped. This was all wrong. His lips were dryer, his tongue more muscular, and his mouth tasted different (if that could even be possible, she thought). His hair felt more oily, and even his purr sounded different.
Marinette pulled back and examined the hero more closely in the dim light. Instead of a golden blond, his hair was a dark indigo.
"Marinette, we need to talk," Luka's unmistakeable voice whispered.
Bonus scene (which is also an advertisement for a fanfic I really like):
"H-hey, Nino... um about that fan fiction..."
"You want to read it don't you," he grinned.
"Yeah, I'm actually kind of embarrassed that I read fanfictions of our friends," she admitted,"but a universe where Chat gets Mari preggers, then rejects her for her?! I need to read it".
"Babe, it is awesome, you have no idea. It's called 'Secret Kitten', it's on fanfiction under the author 'gusswhojoedoe".
"Thanks Nino".
"Oh and one more thing. Don't get upset and throw your phone at the wall. I don't want to have to run to the store and get a new one right now".
Alya laughed, wondering why she would ever get so upset.
An hour later Nino heard shouting in the other room, followed by a crash.
"YOU IDIOT! SHE'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, YOU DUMB CAT!"
Alya walked into the living room. "I'm gonna head to the store real quick... I need to buy something".
"Uh-huh".
ok... so this was a waste of Adrien's clue.
Luka has the ring? and Marinette kissed him?!
Who do we suspect now? Could Lila have escaped or is that the author being a sneaky trickster?
We now have a list of official suspects. (btw, I think it goes without saying, but Nino and Alya have been absolved... or have they?).