Let's Take It From The Top, Chapter 9: The Mood Starts To Swing
As the end-of-day school bell approached, Marinette gathered her belongings and watched the clock intently, ready to head for home at a sprinter's pace.
Be cool, Marinette, be cool, she told herself. Nothing to be excited about there, after all... just a certain unexpected houseguest!
A few of her friends noticed her anticipatory state. Juleka leaned over and asked, "Got a hot date this afternoon, Marinette?"
"N-no! What would make you say that?" Marinette replied, a little too defensively. All around her, Something's going on! pinged loudly on several nearby Girl Radar dishes.
Alya was eager to test her new friend's resistance to gossip acquisition. "Yeah... about that, Marinette! You ran in here almost late today, and now you're ready to fly home. What have you got there that you can't bear to be away from?"
"Puh-lease," said Marinette in a semi-mocking tone. "Ask any of them," pointing to her semicircle of friends looking on, "they know I have about as much romance in my life as a mailbox."
"I don't remember saying it was a ROMANCE, do you?" smiled Alya. "But since you brought it up..." A couple of other friends poked their heads in, their attention also diverted inwards. "There was a certain someone who seemed interested in you the other day, wasn't there?" asked Alya, her eyes dancing.
"Wouldn't he have to be here for me to respond to that? Marinette asked, "Even if I'd planned to?"
"She has a point there," Rose allowed. "Adrien's still missing, isn't he?"
"It wasn't my turn to keep track of him, but yeah, I think so," offered Alix.
"It's nothing all that exciting," Marinette assured them. "Mom and Dad just wanted me home to help them with something around the house. A... new addition in the bakery." She grinned to herself at the concealed truth slipped into that.
"Fair enough," smiled Juleka. "But if you did have someone new in your life, you'd be sure and tell us, ri-"
The bell rang, and Marinette grabbed her bag and was off like a speeding bullet.
"...right?" Juleka finished, to a chorus of giggly laughter. "Is it just me, or..."
"No, something's up with her," Mylene agreed. "She'll tell us when she's ready."
"Or when we catch her at it," smirked Alya. She added "...What?" when she saw a few raised eyebrows around her from her statement.
Marinette flew through the front door of the bakery, greeting her mother as she entered. Sabine nudged her head towards the back kitchen with a smile, knowingly.
As Marinette entered, her father waved and called out, "Hi, Marinette!" Behind him, she saw a crouching figure gathering an armload of things from a low cabinet. He stood up a bit too quickly, turning to greet her; he juggled the items he was carrying, and an open bag of flour among them went WHUMPH!, puffing a white cloud all around him.
She watched Adrien emerge from it, white as a sheet, with a Did that just happen? look of disbelief on his face; she couldn't help but erupt in giggles. "You were right, Dad, he's a natural at this," she laughed.
Adrien raised an eyebrow, about to protest, but had to laugh as well. "It's not the first time today I've managed to coat myself," he admitted, wiping his face. "But I did manage to be productive, I hope."
"Oh, it was very nice having you here today, Adrien! You were definitely a big help," Tom said. "The extra hands meant that Sabine could concentrate on other things." He turned to Marinette and added, "Adrien and I had a chance to talk and get to know each other better today. He's a very promising young man."
"Mmm-hmm," agreed Marinette, happy but a little bit off-balance from her father's statement. Not sure how else he means for me to react to that...
"Show her what I had you working on," suggested Tom. Adrien turned and fetched a tray of sugar cookies, in a variety of shapes and sizes. "No cookie cutter molds, I had him cut those freehand," her father smiled.
"Not bad at all for a first-timer!" Marinette admired, getting a wide smile from her friend. "Very nicely done."
"I was thinking you two could work together on icing them, Marinette; you're so good with designs, and we could put them out with the morning display," hinted Tom. "Would that be all right?"
"Sure!" she replied, brightly. "I'll just run my things upstairs, then come back down and help."
A short while later, Sabine wandered back to see how things were going. She joined her husband as he kept a casual eye on the teenagers, who were huddled together over a table and taking turns putting icing layers onto Adrien's cookie creations. Marinette looked like she was having a blast showing him the finer points of decorating; Adrien looked thrilled just to be there with her.
"You big softie," she grinned, quietly enough for them to not overhear.
"Moi?" he parried, with a slow smile. "I have no idea what you mean, my dear."
As dinner approached, Marinette and Adrien went upstairs to freshen up and get ready. "I have to see what they did with your room!" remarked Marinette.
"Well, I haven't done much with it myself. I didn't exactly bring much with me," said Adrien. "I might run across town as Chat soon, so I can pick up a couple of changes of clothes. If I use my credit card way across town, Dad won't know to look for me here." He smiled, adding, "Not that I don't look good in pink, but eventually you'll want this outfit back."
"Or you can keep it as a souvenir," she teased. They entered the spare room, which Sabine had tidied up and arranged that morning; there was a twin bed made up with a couple of pillows, an emptied dresser, and some other small, decorative touches to make it more appealing. It was simple, but comfortable-looking.
"I can work on this for you, if you want, Adrien," Marinette offered. "I'll bring over some books to read, maybe, or I've got a little radio... If you want to watch TV, there's one downstairs or one in my room..."
"Oh, this is just fine, Marinette, but thank you," he smiled. "It's not like I'll be here for months. This'll be perfect for a short stay, while I figure things out."
"Okay... but if you want some more decorations, I'm quite the aspiring artist," giggled Marinette.
They smiled, then went quiet for a moment. Marinette paused before asking, "Adrien?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you ready to talk about what you hinted at earlier?" she asked, with sincere concern on her face. "It's been bugging me ever since."
"Marinette! Adrien! Dinner's ready!" Sabine called from downstairs.
"Maybe later?" Adrien replied. "I don't want to rush through it. After dinner, get me when you're ready and we'll go somewhere where we can talk."
"Up on the balcony, maybe?" she suggested. "It's a nice night, and I seem to do a lot of talking with boys up there lately."
The teens came down quickly and took their seats at the dinner table, on adjacent sides of it. Sabine brought a large roast chicken over to the table, which made Adrien's eyes light up. "That looks wonderful, Mrs. Cheng," he told her.
"Sabine, please!" she replied, with a little laugh. "Mrs. Cheng was my mother."
"Sabine," said Adrien. "I can do that, sure. Force of habit, sorry! I was raised to use titles, but also to say what people want to be called."
"What do you usually eat at home, by the way?" she asked him. "If you've got favorites that I can make, I'll work them into the rotation here."
"I'll try just about anything once. Dad's kitchen staff is amazing, but his right-hand woman, Nathalie..." Marinette saw his face fall a little at the mention of Nathalie's name, and made a mental note to ask about that. "...She's under orders to keep my diet pretty straightforward. A lot of grilled chicken, a lot of health food, watching portions pretty closely. So, honestly, you don't have to do anything special for me, but thank you very much for asking!"
He grinned and added, "Believe me, I do like to eat. Between all the things my dad has me doing for his company, the fencing lessons, the karate lessons... I'm still a growing boy, I need some calories."
"How different is public school life from how you were doing it before?" Tom asked him. "I'd imagine that it's quite a change."
"It is," he answered, "but mostly in good ways. I was being homeschooled by tutors, mostly, and that meant I didn't get to meet people my own age much. Or if I did, they were often people like Chloè Bourgeois, who is..." He continued over the tiny retching noise coming from his left, but shot Marinette a little smile. "...hardly normal."
Adrien thought about what he'd just said, and added quickly, "But I also don't want to sound like I'm on safari or something, 'vacationing amongst the common people.' That's the kind of thing Chloè would say, because she's always been spoiled, you know? She thinks she's better because of who she is. I know that who my family is doesn't make me better; I'm just a little different. Lucky, more like. Being sheltered by fame or money is no way to learn to be a better person."
"A good way to look at it," Tom said, spooning some vegetables. "Do you get recognized around town much? I know I've seen your picture on posters. You're a full-fledged model for the label, then?"
"I am," confirmed Adrien. "Only because it's for family, because my father asks me to. I don't mind doing it to help him for now, but it's not what I want to do with my life, and while I don't mind being recognized I'd never want to be a big celebrity. I've seen some of what that can lead to."
"I'd seen his picture a thousand times in the fashion magazines," added Marinette, "but I didn't really make the connection when he walked into class until Ms. Bustier introduced him to us." She looked over at Adrien and said, "I... misjudged you at first, because of the thing with the gum, and because I was afraid you'd be stuck-up and conceited like Chloè... but you're so much more down-to-earth than I would've ever imagined. And, yes, that's a really good thing."
Sabine smiled, watching even light praise from Marinette redden Adrien's cheeks. I wonder if Marinette realizes just how much Adrien's wrapped around her little finger? she thought. If she doesn't, I bet being under one roof like this will speed that up...
Nathalie Sancoeur sat at her computer, typing frantically, looking for any news of... someone has to have it... ah! There!
She read a news story from a local station about strange events at a downtown cafe, a mysterious injury, and... "The waiter is recovering and responsive, apparently suffering no major injuries, at a nearby hospital. It is unknown what caused his abrupt collapse..."
Thank goodness, she thought. Whatever that strange energy was, I thought I'd killed that poor boy. It sounds like he's mostly all right, like I was...
Her relief was only momentary, tempered by some uncomfortable knowledge. Not only did that energy come from me... and I don't know how or why it did... but it fed that weird hunger that I'd felt. It's the only thing that has!
She stared at her bare hands, which certainly didn't look like lethal energy weapons to her. What am I becoming? she quailed.
Do I dare tell Gabriel about this? He's under too much strain already, with Adrien missing. But could he find out something from his research about this, and maybe find a way to fix it? I don't know that there's any way that I can't, once I figure out how to describe it without sounding like a crazy person or a threat to everyone around me.
Her body still felt like a stranger to her. In the aftermath of the energy shock, she'd felt extremely cranked up; she didn't know if that was from fear, from adrenaline, from shock, from some combination of the three... or if it was something else along with those. Did I... absorb energy from that boy? she wondered. Is that what fed the hunger? I had some kind of imbalance, somehow, and the shock rebalanced it?
She was coming down slowly from that rush... feeling less like a live wire and more like Nathalie, a little at a time. She took slow, deep breaths, trying to return to her normal heartrate. It seemed to be working. There was just one nagging thought that kept her nerves on edge...
Is it going to happen to me again?
After the meal and conversation, Adrien declared, "The dishes are mine."
"Ours," corrected Marinette. "I'll help you." The two collected the plates and silverware and headed for the sink together.
Back at the table, Tom and Sabine compared notes. "So?" Sabine asked. "Thumbs up, thumbs down?"
"What I've seen of him so far, I've really liked," Tom replied. "I'm still a little twitchy over him living here... but you can understand my reasons why."
"Whatever's going on with his father needs resolving, I agree," said Sabine. "I think he'll be a very welcome visitor once that happens, though. Assuming that they ever let him out of his house again."
"Yeah, that's hard to tell. Would I be thankful if someone kept Marinette warm and dry, if she ever ran off like that? Or angry that they didn't call me immediately? Probably some of each," pondered Tom. "I don't know how his father will react once he finds out about all this."
"I hope he's reasonable about it. They're made for each other, Tom, just look at them." They peeked in on Marinette and Adrien in the kitchen, giggling and splashing a little water at each other as they cleaned. "He's so polite, he's handsome, he's a sweet boy, and he's absolutely fascinated by her. And she's well on her way to matching that, I think. Plus, there's the... other thing."
Tom put his hands over his face, imitating a domino mask, and Sabine nodded. "Do you think they both know?" he asked.
"Shhh," Sabine cautioned, in a whisper. "Not too loud with that. Marinette knows his, but from how she reacted earlier, she hasn't told him yet about either one of hers. I think that only you and I know about Ladybug."
Tom shook his head. "That's all way out of my league, trying to figure that out. I'll let them handle it, and if she wants advice I'll let her ask for it." He grinned, adding, "And I'm not crazy for letting him and Marinette sleep in adjacent rooms, am I?"
"Oh, I don't think so," Sabine pooh-poohed. "I think they'd both pass out from shock after their first kiss. Not that we can't still play chaperone once in a while to make sure they behave..."
Marinette's parents weren't the only ones bringing each other up to speed at that moment.
"Hmmph," Tikki murmured. "This thing with Adrien's powers is VERY serious! Master Fu will definitely need to know about this. If Kwamis showed up on cell phones, I'd call him right now! I'll have to find an excuse for Marinette to go over there without giving away who he really is."
"It's pretty bad, yeah," said Plagg. "So far, it's not BAD bad... but we're not far away from that. And he's too much of a good kid to NOT want to use his powers for the right reasons, so it's going to keep getting worse until Master Fu can fix us. If he can."
"He'd figured out most of it already," replied Tikki. "Wayzz sensed how it started, with his hypersensitivity to that kind of thing, and when things blew up even Master Fu felt the disturbance. The good thing is that we know exactly who and where all three Miraculous users are right now, so we don't have to chase them down."
"Will Fu put out a fourth one?" wondered Plagg. "Maybe one from the Zodiac tier?"
"I doubt it," Tikki said. "Would it really help? Not unless the Moth unleashes something weird enough that we'd need backup. And I've got to keep an eye out for the Moth's butterflies, anyway..."
"Hah, yeah!" Plagg laughed. "If Marinette were to become Firefly again, Adrien's head would explode."
"AND Gabriel would probably know right away that Marinette was also Ladybug," Tikki noted. "Which I don't think we want to happen."
"Agreed. Adrien's suspicious of his father, just like I am," said Plagg. "Nobody collects Miraculouses and researches them by accident. That's a big reason why he hasn't gone home yet."
"You haven't heard anything about the poor woman there that interrupted the invocation?" asked Tikki. "Whether she's all right?"
Plagg looked very glum. "Not yet," he answered. "But from how my powers feel, and from how this played out the last time... we might not have to wait long to find out."
Footsteps on the stairs interrupted their conversation, and the Kwamis dove for temporary cover.
Marinette led Adrien up into her room, up the ladder and to her balcony, where they could talk privately for a while. They got comfortable on the lounge chairs, both a little uneasy about what might follow.
"All right, Adrien... I know there's more to the story. Can you tell me what it is? I'd really like to know, before I..." Marinette trailed off.
"Before what?" asked Adrien, gently.
"Before. We'll see if we get that far," she squirmed. "But, seriously? You made it sound like there's something huge you haven't told me yet."
"And I haven't... but I will." He looked into Marinette's eyes and thought, Those could make me tell you anything. "Okay, I've told you about what a Miraculous is. Each one has a hidden power..."
Marinette sat anxiously, paying rapt attention to the first part of Adrien's story: how he'd found the Cat and Moth, the book, the notes on the combined power, the accident. "Is Nathalie all right?" she asked him.
He hung his head, ashamed. "I think so... but I don't know for sure. I need to find that out, because that's part of what's tearing me up inside."
"Were you close with her?" Marinette wondered.
"Yes and no?" evaded Adrien. "She kept a professional distance, but she was around me all the time, so she knew me very well. And I don't want to hurt ANYBODY, close or not, but I did. And it gets worse."
He held up his right hand, which looked normal to her at first glance. "When Cataclysm happens, it's with this hand and a black energy around it. It's STUCK ON, thanks to my screwup! Right now it's behaving itself, so I won't zap or dissolve whatever I touch... but the more I use the power, the... hungrier it'll get, I guess you could say. And I used it earlier today."
"What would it do now, if you touched someone?" shivered Marinette.
"It only seems to drain people when it's low on energy... so most of the time, it's fine. For now. The last time I used it and it went off, it was to break up a fight. It turned a big guy from a raving brute to barely standing up. And that was before I used Cataclysm today to get out of that trap and help Ladybug... it might be worse next time."
Now Marinette hung HER head. "If she'd known that, she'd have gotten herself out of that trap, I'm sure," she mumbled.
"She'd have had no way of knowing any of that. You're closer to me than anyone I know now, Marinette, and even you didn't know until I just told you," Adrien replied, surprised at her seemingly guilty reaction. "But that's... that's a big reason why I haven't gone home. I'm scared that I'll touch one of them by accident and do something terrible, like I've already done once."
He walked over and knelt by where Marinette was sitting. "But I also can't stay here long... because I'm terrified that I'll hurt YOU, or your parents. And if I ever hurt you, or worse, that would break me in two."
He could see her thinking hard. "It's kind of like... a diabetic's blood sugar, then? The closer to a normal range it is, the less energy it needs to be fixed, but if you let it dip way low or it overcharges and it's way up high, it's a big problem?" she asked.
"Not a bad analogy, I think."
Marinette put her hands on his shoulders. "Then when you're feeling just a twinge, before it gets bad enough to be dangerous... touch me."
"Are you out of your mind?" Adrien boggled, incredulously. "I'm not going to drain you!"
"Who else, then?" Marinette snapped back. "Someone random at the bus stop? If I know what's going to happen, I won't be afraid of it. And if you're doing it the smart way, draining just a little at a time, I'm a big girl, I should be fine."
"You don't know that!" he nearly shouted. "I don't know how to judge how much it'll drain, or what doing it once would do to you, let alone relying on you as my backup battery pack!"
He lowered his voice, not wanting to turn it into an argument. "Marinette... there's no way that I can hurt you, even a little bit, and not hate myself for it."
"I'll hate myself if I can help you, and I don't make you let me help," she retorted, crossing her arms. "You need someone you can count on. I can be that."
"That's the most generous, most selfless offer I've ever heard in my life," Adrien said, quietly. "And I can't take you up on it. But if at some point I absolutely have to... I still won't, but we'll talk first, at least."
He laughed, briefly, at the helplessness he felt. Both the situation and the girl in front of him were taking away any control he had over himself. "Marinette, I... I want to hug you more than anything in the world right now," he added, "and I'm scared to touch you. And it's not just because of my Cataclysm problem."
She stood still for a moment, letting that sink in. He's saying... that he...
Without a word, Marinette leaned over and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. "Then let me handle that part," she whispered.
Marinette laid her head on Adrien's shoulder, and felt his left arm press against her back... and, slowly, extremely hesitantly, his right.
Nothing unusual happened. If there was any electricity flowing between them, it was the kind that any two people slowly finding each other would experience.
For the time being, at least... their shared world made a little sense.
They came back down not long after, and spent some time talking about happier things in Marinette's room. After a while, she looked at the clock and didn't like what she saw. "I hate to say it, but at least ONE of us has school tomorrow..." she complained.
"And I'm sure I'll have lots more to do in the kitchen," smiled Adrien. "I promise that I'll try to get back to what passes for normal soon. Back to school, back... home. I do need to do both."
"I know. I won't nag you about it, unless I have to," Marinette replied. "And I'll ask one favor in return, tonight. Wait here for a minute?"
He nodded, and she headed to the bathroom with a change of clothes under her arm. When she came back, she was decked out in modest pajamas, her typical nighttime wear.
Adrien raised a questioning eyebrow. Marinette climbed into bed, pulled the sheets up, and giggled, "Well, I tucked you in last night. Will you tuck me in tonight, Adrien?"
"I'd be honored," he smiled. He walked over, made sure that her pillow was properly fluffed and her sheets were snugly around her, then flicked off the light and returned to her side.
"Hey," she whispered up to him. "Thank you for telling me all that you did tonight. That couldn't have been easy to talk about, and it touches me that you trust me that much."
"I said it the wrong way around earlier, Marinette. I can't hide anything from you... because I don't want to."
Even in the dim light from her nearby clock, Marinette's soft smile was obvious.
Every nerve in Adrien's body screamed at him to do what seemed completely natural...
...But I don't know how she'd react. And I don't know that I can make myself stop right now, if I dare start and she kisses me back.
He took her hand in his, instead, and whispered, "Sweet dreams, Marinette. See you in the morning?"
"Or in our dreams tonight," she winked back. "You never know..."
Through intense willpower, Adrien stood up and tiptoed slowly out of Marinette's room, closing the door behind him quietly.
It's late enough that I don't want to wake anyone up, Adrien thought. I'll go back to my room as quietly as I can...
Just as his hand touched his doorknob, a soft voice asked, "So, you're a night owl, too?"
He jumped, just a little, but turned with a smile towards Marinette's mother. "Sometimes," he replied. "Marinette and I had a lot to talk about, and we did... but we both need some sleep or we'll be dragging ourselves through tomorrow. So she asked me to tuck her in, I did, and here I am. How about you?"
"Nothing much," Sabine yawned. "Just getting a glass of water and stretching my legs a little." She gave him a gentle smile and added, "She thinks very highly of you, you know."
Adrien thought, I'm not very experienced at this, but I know this is one of those tests I really don't want to fail, and anything short of honesty will.
"I'm very happy that she does. The feeling is obviously mutual! If it wasn't for her kindness - and yours - I'm not sure where I'd be standing right now," he replied. "That's not a little thing at all, but she's... she's so much more than just that."
"I'm glad you think so," Sabine smiled. "You've been on her mind quite a bit these last few days."
"I have?" Adrien's face lit up for a moment, then returned to its conflicted state. "Both good and bad reasons why, I'm sure. I'll be honest with you, Mrs. Cheng... I'm kind of walking a tightrope in my head. There are... places where part of me really hopes this'll go, but I also don't want her getting tangled up tight with someone whose life is an utter mess right now."
"Which is a thoughtful way of thinking about it, Adrien. Though in the end, the heart wants what it wants, doesn't it?" Sabine mused.
"But that's just it. What does her heart really want?" asked Adrien, his eyes pleading for an answer.
"I wouldn't know," said Sabine, with a cryptic smile. "Perhaps you should ask her that sometime, once things settle down a bit."
"I think that's very good advice. But for now, I think my heart needs sleep. I hear bakers start very early in the morning," he grinned.
"We certainly do. Good night, Adrien," Sabine replied, heading for the stairs.
"Good night, Mrs. Ch... Sabine," said Adrien, catching himself.
Marinette's eyes refused to close, despite repeated orders from her brain.
There is just... so much for me to digest right now, she thought. I had no idea that how Adrien got his Miraculous was that traumatic! And it explains a lot about how he reacted when Firefly showed up.
The "I'm afraid that you're from my father" part, not the "she's adorable" part, she giggled.
Yes, there IS a very handsome boy lying in the next room, and yes, he's definitely into at least one 'side' of me, and oh my GOD I think he almost kissed me just now! As MYSELF! And I think I totally set that up so that he could, if he wanted to!
She floated back down, slightly closer to stability. And that's the moment where Mom and Dad open the door and go "Ahem!" and send Adrien home, right?
Focus, Marinette. Helping Adrien is more important right now than silly fantasies of him wanting to kiss me. I'm sure I'm imagining that, anyway.
I would LOVE to see him and his father get back together. They both need that so much. It's great that this worked out for him for now, but he can't stay here for too long. Marinette wrinkled her brow, deep in thought. But is it my place to even think about trying to help with that?
Tikki seems... suspicious of his father. A Miraculous is no joke, especially if they can do what Adrien said he was trying to do with them, and his father was COLLECTING them? That's not creepy at ALL. He seemed sincere when he turned me into Firefly, and for all his bluster, the Dairy Dynamo wasn't trying to hurt us... just trying to bring Adrien home. But can I trust that that's his father's only motivation?
Or is there a way for me to try to find out?
And the thing with Adrien's power malfunctioning... that's big. Very big. Do I have any right to tell Mom and Dad?
...Do I have any right to HIDE IT?
And how the heck are we going to fix it?
Marinette rocked back and forth on the edge of a couple of big decisions.
Adrien knew sleep wasn't coming to him any time soon.
I nearly crossed a big line a few minutes ago. And, wow, I sure wanted to...
He closed his eyes, and imagined Marinette leaning up from her pillow, the two of them sinking into a tender kiss...
...then imagined his right hand touching her cheek and her dissolving into a black mist with a shocked, pained gasp.
NO! I cannot let anything like that happen. I'd rather turn it on myself, if that's even possible, than hurt Marinette.
Which means that I shouldn't let this go much farther. Not now. She could have all of my heart with one kiss, one look, one SENTENCE if she wanted to, and I'd be helpless to resist. Should I disappear before that happens, for her own safety and her parents' safety?
But just disappearing without a word would hurt her, too. I can tell that. She wants so badly to help me through this, but I don't know how anyone can! As much as I hate to admit it, the answers to all of this almost have to lie at home, with my father, with that book, with the research he has on the Miraculouses.
And that just brings up another dilemma! Adrien winced. Why DID Dad have those under lock and key? Where did he get them from? Why was he COLLECTING superpowers and magic totems? If I do go home and give him back the Cat Miraculous... what would he do with it?
Can I trust him, now that I know what I know? Plagg seems to think I can do more good with it like this.
I could do that. I could be selfish, for a change. I could just stay right here and wake up to those eyes and that smile for as long as I can. Would that be so terrible?
Yeah, I could do that... until my Cataclysm kills someone.
Whatever or wherever the answer to THAT may be... I have to find it soon. And I know where I ought to start.
Nathalie rocked back and forth in her bed, unable to get any rest.
She felt a little bit hungry... and every little twinge of that terrified her.
If I get up and get a snack from the kitchen, and the hunger doesn't go away... what in the world can I do?
Staring at her ceiling, on the other hand, also wasn't making it go away... but since it involved not leaving her bed and not finding out how much trouble she might actually be in, it worked for her for now.
I just want my life back, she thought...
...preferably without having to steal it from anyone else.
Tikki couldn't sit still.
I don't even sleep all that much, she thought. It's just not something that I do. But, wow, would it be so nice if I could just turn my brain off for a few hours and not keep thinking about all of this...
I've seen enough of Adrien to know that he's a good person. The kind I could see Master Fu picking to be Chat Noir, if he didn't already have it, so it's not terrible that he has it now. But things are about to get really complicated and I don't know how much of it I can steer them away from!
We have young love blooming, and they just happen to also be Chat Noir and Ladybug! Chat's already compromised; I don't know how long Marinette can keep Ladybug's secret, or if she or her parents will let it slip. All three are such good people, but they're human, too, and the more Marinette falls for Adrien the harder it'll be for her.
And...we have young love blooming, one of them has deadly magic glued to his right hand, and the other's already talking about suffering so that he won't have to. Which is, well, absolutely a Marinette thing to offer, but this has disaster written all over it unless Master Fu can figure something out, and fast.
But how can I get either of them to him without giving away that he's a Guardian? I need to talk to him before I tell them that. Somehow.
And we have the two halves of the formula for godlike power that SOMEONE in Paris knows about... living under one roof, worn by two kids who are asleep ten meters apart. Which means that it's SO important to keep Marinette's secret, since our Miraculous collector knows who has the Cat...
Arrgh! Tikki thought. I need a vacation, and I haven't even been active again for a week!
And poor Plagg is messed up, too! I wonder if he's as much of a nervous wreck as I am?
Plagg slept. He was very good at doing that.
Next time:
* It's time for some reaching out to happen. But by who, and to whom?
* "I have officially run out of underwear."
* "I really don't need a ride home..."
* "YOU again!"
* Wings spread once more...