"So she knew about the different powers and could transform into a fire form without any power-up potion of anything?" asked Master Fu in awe.
"Yes. And then when everyone was taken to safety, she just made fire with her bare hands" Marinette exclaimed. "Fire. With her hands!"
"That's peculiar..." Master Fu said, stroking his beard. "And what about your and Cat Noir's fire powers?"
"I… Uhh.. We didn't really have a chance to explore much of our powers" Marinette said, scratching the back of her head. "But we were immune to the huge fire tornado Libella and Ryuko created. I couldn't even feel the temperature change."
"It's a good thing your Lucky Charm can repair all damage created while fighting a villain" Master Fu smiled kindly after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah…" Marinette replied, seemingly deep in thoughts. "Umm… Master?"
"What's wrong, Marinette?" asked Master Fu.
"I…" she tried forming a question, as Libella's words echoed her mind. "Do you know why the Dragonfly Miraculous is in this family's possession? And not it the Miracle Box?"
"I'm afraid that I can't help you with that. I've heard legends about the Dragonfly Miraculous, but never about the reason behind its unique situation" Masted Fu admitted.
"But a guardian used to take care of it as well, right?" asked Marinette. "Like, a long time ago."
"A very long time ago, indeed" smiled Master Fu. "And there were times when the Order of the Guardians heavily opposed the idea of a Miraculous not being in their possession" he added with a grim expression.
"What… what does that supposed to mean?" asked Marinette, eyeing Tikki.
"I suppose that's something both Ladybug and Cat Noir should hear about" replied Master Fu, thoughtfully. "Together."
ˇˇˇˇˇ
During lunch break, Danielle arrived later than the others. She seemed troubled, hopping down next to Mylène.
"What's wrong, Danielle?" asked Marinette with a concerned voice.
"Where have you been? Did something happen?" chimed in Alya.
"I had a meeting with the art teacher" Danielle sighed, poking her food.
"Mr. Monlataing?" Adrien asked. "But… he's always so nice…"
"Oh, he was" Dani explained. "It's just… He said I should do an art project for his class. And I have NO idea what to do."
"You shouldn't worry about it too much. Basically anything that you do on your own counts as a project for him" said Adrien assuringly.
"I made a post about the latest exhibition in the Louvre for the school blog and he was very pleased with my project" Alya said, showing quotation marks when saying the word: project.
"Thankfully he accepted being in Kitty Section as a joint project for all of us" said Rose with relief.
"I just submitted one of the sweet mixes I made" Nino said with excitement. "He was totally into it."
"Maybe we could help you figure out what to do for his class" Rose said kindly.
"Yeah" said Marinette with excitement. "I'm sure we can find something that could be considered your art project."
"Can you think of things you're good at?" asked Nino, getting a paper and pen out.
"Uhhh… I mean…" groaned Danielle.
"Anything. Just list things and we'll see what we can work with" said Adrien excitedly.
"Ummm… okay…" Danielle said, unsurely.
"Come on, quick" Alya said, snapping her fingers, making Danielle's anxiety rise to the roof. "Go, go, go!"
"Uhh… getting lost, being anxious, overthinking, uuum…" Danielle tried working through her completely frozen brain. "Naming all actors in horror movies from the 50s, maybe from the 60s as well, uhh… knowing random useless facts that nobody cares about… Like, did you know that the Scottish language has 421 words for snow? Like, why do they need all of those words? Is there really that much snow that they need all those words?" she mused, getting lost in her thoughts about snow.
"What?" Juleka finally interrupted, looking at their completely dumbfounded classmates.
"What?" asked Danielle in return, looking completely stressed.
"Well, that didn't work out as I thought" said Nino, looking at Alya.
"Don't look at me, I just tried to help" said Alya defensively.
"Maybe we shouldn't do it again" said Marinette, putting her hand on Danielle's shoulder reassuringly. "Like, ever."
"Yeah" Dani breathed out.
"Serious question, though" Alya started with changed tone, looking at Danielle with her raised eyebrows. "Before you speak… Do you ever consider that maybe you shouldn't say something? Like out loud. For everyone to hear."
Turning her gaze towards Alya, Danielle looked at her for a second, before looking away and pressing her lips together.
"I guess you are mostly blessed with my unfiltered thoughts" Danielle finally said with a sharp exhale, making the others giggle.
Looking at Danielle, Marinette had a strange feeling. A thought was forming in the depth of her mind about what Danielle's art project should be, but she couldn't grasp it just yet. It was like the answer was right in front of her but she didn't know, what it was. But before she could figure it out, a very excited Ivan ran to them, sharing the news about next week's events: The Zombie Skull Crushers were touring, promoting their new album, and their next concert will be in Paris, along with a little surprise for all the fans.
ˇˇˇˇˇ
As part of the promotion and celebration, a labyrinth was constructed in the park, called the Maze of Horrors. A ghost/zombie themed scary maze in which originally 15 signed CDs of the new album were hidden. By the time they got there, only 3 remained to be found by the lucky visitors. Even though Mylène was too scared to enter, Ivan and the others were thrilled to check out the maze, and also to find one of the CDs. Rose offered to stay with Mylène outside and get some cotton candy while waiting for their classmates to finish. Juleka and Danielle couldn't wait to see what horrors await them in the maze, making Luka smile with their enthusiasm and silliness. Alix and Alya were making their master plan to somehow get Marinette and Andrien get lost in the maze together, even though Marinette really wanted to stay outside with Mylène. The two other girls had a hard time convincing her to go to the maze with the others. When the attendant signalled them that the new group could enter, Ivan quickly ran inside, making everybody laugh. Alya held Nino's hand, while winking at Alix, as she noisily made their way to the maze. Alix, understanding the sign, pushed Marinette forward while grabbing Adrien's hand, disappearing in the dark corridors while talking about how they will find the CDs and the way out in no time.
"That was weird" Juleka mumbled, looking at Danielle.
"Yeah…" Danielle replied, with a confused face. "Shall we?" she motioned to the entrance, making Juleka nod in agreement as the started slowly walking inside. "Come on, or you might get lost in the spooky maze" Danielle said to Luka with a mischievous voice, looking back at him.
"Me?" asked Luka, grinning, as he followed the girls. "And here I was thinking you are the one with no sense of direction" he said, making his sister hide her smile.
"I do have a sense of direction" Dani snapped, with a big smile. "It's just really really bad, okay?"
Inside the maze, there were three possible ways at the first junction, beside the one they came from. Almost immediately, Juleka saw some faint glowing on the left, so she started walking towards it.
"So, each one of us checks one out, or...?" Danielle asked, looking at Luka, as Juleka walked away.
"So you would get lost and never to be heard of again?" Luka asked teasingly, as he grabbed her hand and started following his sister. "I don't think so."
"Hey" Danielle replied with a laugh. "I'm sure they would find me eventually… Like when they disassemble the place. In like a few days."
She tried her best to hide her nervousness as they slowly followed Juleka, with Luka continuously holding her hand. Is this how he feels with Marinette around? It never seems like that. He's always so calm and collected. And the way he looks at Marinette… She would completely melt if he ever looked at her with those eyes. As they turned a corner, a ghost prop fell from the ceiling in the smoke-filled hallway, surrounded by whispering noises, making Danielle laugh in excitement.
"Awesome" Juleka murmured with a small smile.
Walking further in the smoky hallway, they saw a smaller hallway, almost completely hidden in the wall. It was much narrower than the main path, making it impossible for two people to walk on it side-by-side. Looking at Luka and Dani, Juleka waited for their approval before heading through the newly found path. As they entered the claustrophobic hallway full of cobwebs and all kinds of fake robotic spiders, Luka still held Danielle's hand. It's not like she didn't enjoy it, but maybe Jule thought it was weird for them to do that. Or Luka just forgot to let her go. Maybe if she just kept holding his hand, he would think she's too clingy. So she slowly tried to release his hand, only to make him squeeze her hand stronger and stop on his track, making Danielle bump into him.
"What's wrong?" Luka asked, concerned.
"Hm?" she hummed in return. "What do you mean?"
As a reply, Luka just held up their still connected hands.
"Oh" Dani replied, thinking of something to say. "Well, you really don't have to, you know, umm… Babysit me" she blurted out, making Luka raise his eyebrows with a questioning look. "I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself" Dani added with a triumphant tone.
"I don't doubt that" Luka said with a small chuckle. "I just don't want to risk losing you."
She knew exactly what he meant but hearing him say that still made her heart beat faster. Thankfully, in a second, Luka turned around and started walking further in the path, so he didn't see the redness all over Danielle's face. When they got through the path, they reached a bigger room with 6 other entrances, but Juleka was nowhere to be seen.
"Jule…?" Luka said in a questioning tone, waiting for a reply to hopefully locate which way his sister went.
"I guess you should've held her hand as well" Danielle said mockingly, making Luka roll his eyes with a smile.
That's when they heard a familiar shriek from one of the paths to their left.
"Marinette" whispered Luka, as he let go of Dani, running down the hallway where the sound came from.
Standing alone in the dimly lit room, Danielle just stared at the hallway Luka disappeared in. She felt betrayed, even though she had no reason to do so. She was just a new friend for Luka, while Marinette was his love interest. Still, it hurt. This was a horror maze, of course people would scream and shriek, so there was no need to just drop her and run off to look for Marinette.
"Stupid girl" she whispered to herself.
Collecting her thoughts, Danielle looked around, choosing a path to her right to walk down. As she walked silently in the hallway with all kinds of busts and small sculptures, she saw something out of place while passing by a zombie figurine. Stepping closer with a small smile, she took the small box behind the zombie figurine, before making her way through the hallway.
ˇˇˇˇˇ
"Thank you again, Luka" Marinette said in embarrassment, exiting the maze with Luka on her side.
"No problem" Luka said with a smile. "I'll gladly save you from plastic skeletons any time."
Seeing the two exiting together, Juleka started wondering what had happened since she left her brother and Danielle alone in the narrow hallway, holding hands, that led to him getting out of the maze with Marinette. It was none of her business who her brother liked, but she knew that Marinette was in love with Adrien. She was worried about her brother getting his heart broken but she wanted to stay friends with Marinette as well. But lately, it seemed like Danielle and Luka got along well, and she thought, maybe her brother found a more approachable girl to hang out with. As far as she knew, there wasn't anyone in particular that Danielle liked, but she secretly hoped that if they spent enough time together, Danielle might fall for Luka and vice versa. She also hoped that Adrien and Marinette got together. They seemed like a good couple. If Marinette could muster up the courage to at least try to talk to him about her feelings, maybe they would finally go out on a date or something.
"Well, that didn't go as we planned" whispered Alya to Alix, interrupting Juleka's thoughts.
"What do you mean?" asked Rose in a tiny voice.
"Marinette was supposed to go through the maze with Adrien" Alix said, pissed. "Alya distracted Nino while I set the scene for those two to get lost together."
"And not only she ended up with Luka, no offense" Alya semi-whispered, looking at Juleka, who mumbled something in return, "but I haven't seen Adrien leaving the maze."
"You're right. Adrien is not here yet" Mylène chimed in, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Neither is Danielle" Ivan added, looking around.
"I mean, that's not much of a surprise, is it?" asked Nino with a chuckle.
"They still haven't made it out of there?" Marinette asked, scenes of the two of them already flashing through her mind.
Juleka's eyes slowly turned to her brother, as she awkwardly clutched her arms. Luka was looking back at his sister, with a feeling of guilt creeping up on him. Thinking of the things he said to Danielle, and then bailing on her when he heard Marinette. He looked at Marinette, who was low-key freaking out about the idea of Adrien and Danielle still wandering the "so scary" maze.
"Don't worry so much" Alya said, trying to calm Marinette down. "First of all, I don't think it was particularly scary. Danielle is probably laughing at most of these decorations" she said with a giggle, as others agreed with her. "Her getting lost is another issue. But maybe she and Adrien are together, so he can take care of her and help her find a way out."
"I mean, you're not wrong about them being together" Nino interrupted, pointing into the direction from which Adrien and Danielle were approaching them, talking and laughing.
"Aaahh… Am I seeing this correctly?" Alya asked in disbelief.
"Hey guys" Adrien greeted them happily, when they got closer. "Has everyone finished?"
"We thought you guys are still inside, dude" Nino said with a grin, looking at Danielle intensely.
"Ha-ha, very funny" Danielle said sarcastically, crossing her arms. "Dumb little Danielle is probably still wandering the dark hallways because she can't find her way out."
"I mean, that wouldn't be out of character for you" Alya added, teasingly. "You're lucky Adrien found you."
"What happened? Where have you guys been?" asked Rose with interest.
"First of all, I got out of there on my own, okay?" she said, starting counting on her hand from her pinky. "And I only got lost a couple of times" she continued smiling, making her friends chuckle. "Then I met with Adrien outside. He got through in no time and we were waiting for you guys to finally finish. But I got hungry and we got some corn dogs" she said, adding her ring and middle fingers to the counting.
"We got a lot of corn dogs" interrupted Adrien, with a big smile, making Danielle look at him for a few seconds.
"Alright. We got a lot of corn dogs" she corrected herself. "They were delicious."
"Yup" Adrien added with a nod.
"Also, I found this" she said, reaching into one of her pockets, getting a CD out, offering it to Ivan.
"You… You found a demo CD?" Ivan asked in excitement.
"Yes. And I'd like you to have it" she added with a smile, making everyone surprised, except Adrien, who just kindly smiled.
"What? Me?" asked Ivan in awe. "But, why?"
"Don't get me wrong, I think they're a really cool band. I like their music" Danielle said, explaining herself. "But they're YOUR favourite band. And this is a limited edition, signed CD. Fit for one of their biggest fans."
"Oooh, that's so sweet of her" Marinette cooed, lifting her hands to her chest. "Don't you think, Luka?"
"Yeah…" Luka replied with a small guilty smile. "That's really kind of her."
