Adrien kept his phone on him at school, at work, when he was just walking around his apartment or going to the grocery store. He usually had his phone with him but it didn't usually feel so heavy or important. He didn't usually check it so often. Nothing he sent her even seemed to go through, he might as well have been sending messages into the void. It meant he was waiting on her to reach out and that was playing havoc on his nerves.
"Go left," usually meant to meet an enemy head on but it also meant they were splitting up to come at an Akuma from two sides. She swung out to the side and he took the middle but that meant there was a target. He didn't know what the target was. There was no enemy that he was aware of, he'd gone through every news post from the day she'd disappeared and there was no other attack. There wasn't even anything unusual that might have meant one of the less aggressive Akuma was playing tricks.
If he knew what the problem was, he could help. As it was, he could do nothing but stare at his phone and try not to let his mood spill over onto the people he had to talk to. He had been dodging calls from his father in particular until he wasn't so upset.
"Scared," a little voice in the back of his head whispered but he pushed it down. It didn't stop murmuring: "You're scared."
It was two days before he heard from her.
She sent him a text message that came through some sort of website, it didn't have a return number and the first line was an advertisement. He opened it only because he was compulsively opening everything that came up as a notification. It looked like spam and he would have closed it without reading the entire thing but the first line was:
"Go left," and it was followed by an address, a time, and the word, "Rooftop."
Something tense and terrified in his chest loosened. He walked off of campus without returning for the second half of the damned calculus course. He should have stayed. He had the conversation with himself as he walked away that he should have stayed, could have stayed but he knew that his ability to focus was a lost cause. He had hours to go before he got to the meeting time. He stopped off at a fromagerie to buy Plagg some of the high quality Camembert as an apology for all the pacing he was going to do for the rest of the afternoon.
It was nine o'clock when he headed out as Chat Noir. Plagg had whined about it but he'd also eaten half the round of cheese so Adrien hadn't even bothered to argue with him. He ran a little just to burn off the worst of his anxiety before he came up to the building. Just an apartment block with a shop on the ground floor. It wasn't so dissimilar from the apartment block where he lived.
As he looked at it, paranoia set in.
Ladybug had sent the message. He was sure it was her. He had no reason to be sure. He stopped and let himself think it all the way through. Maybe it hadn't been her. Why hadn't she sent it from her phone? And if she hadn't sent it, then what had happened to her that someone else had been able to figure out that code. The knot of anxiety was retying itself. Something had happened to her and he needed to know what it was.
"Curiosity killed the cat," he muttered to himself but it didn't stop him.
The rooftop was like any rooftop. He landed on the chimney with his baton extended in case he was going to need to fight his way out of some kind of trap. He was there early and there was no one else up there. There were no security cameras or guards. It wasn't even the type of rooftop with access. It was empty. It was just another building. He sat and waited but didn't let his guard down.
She landed below him. Landed badly. Her aim had been off and she hit the slant of roof and started to slide. He moved fast enough to grab her by the arm and swing her back onto the flat part of the rooftop. She swore and wobbled even there.
And she was wrong.
"Who are you?" he asked and his voice was even.
"Damn, you can tell? This whole plan hinges on people not being able to tell," she said.
Some sixth sense was there in the back of his head telling him that she wasn't an Akuma or someone in costume but she also wasn't Ladybug. Not his Ladybug. She was a little too tall and though the magic of the transformation made it hard for him to say what exactly it was that was off, something was. Her hair was wrong. Not long enough or dark enough. Her face didn't look right. He couldn't remember his Ladybug's exact features when she wasn't standing in front of him so he couldn't compare them but this was not the same person.
"Who are you?" he asked again and his voice wasn't as calm.
"Ladybug, well, not really, but I am today," she said.
"Is she dead?" he heard himself ask and it didn't feel like something Chat would ever say. It sounded like Adrien's voice from when he'd been little, when his mother had vanished. He kept his expression neutral but once the words were out the possibility that it was true hit him hard in the chest.
"Oh god, no! No," she said and waving her hands as though she could wave the idea away. Then once more as though she wasn't sure he'd heard her, "No."
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked.
He leaned against his staff and considered this not-Ladybug. His panic had given way to curiosity and confusion. A lot of confusion. He kept looking at her like there was some answer in her, if he just found the right detail, he could unravel the entire puzzle.
"So M-my friend, who is Ladybug, which is still a little weird for me to say because isn't that ridiculous? But she is and she has these earrings and this little red blobby thing that's adorable and freaky and is maybe an alien and do you have one too?" she asked.
He was silent for a minute before he realized she meant the Kwami, "Yes," he said.
"Right, I guess you must because you're a regular person too. So weird," she said. Chat raised his eyebrows and tilted his head at her in a silent question and she straightened up a little.
"You know that Gala? It was a test. For a long time the conspiracy theorists on the internet have been saying that all you need to do to prove someone is Ladybug is take all your candidates out to the middle of no where and then send an Akuma after them. Of course in order to do that you need to be able to make Akuma and then kidnap young women, so most of these whack jobs on the blogs can't very well put that theory to the test. Except that's exactly what happened at that stupid fashion party."
"You're telling me that the reason that Akuma appeared so far away from Paris is because Hawkmoth sent it on purpose? He sent it after her?" Chat said.
"Clever kitty cat! Good job!" she said. She talked with her hands, flapping them around and pacing a little bit as she explained. He was on edge for when she slipped and fell off the roof again.
"Don't call me that, just tell me where she is," he said.
"Sitting at home, probably on her bed doing some kind of fancy project for her fancy job," she said.
"So she's fine," he said.
"Except for the invisible stalker, yeah," not-Ladybug said with a shrug.
"What?" he said harsher. She turned to him for a moment as though his tone had scared her. He tried to soften his expression but knew he was failing. .
"Tikki and I have a theory," she said going back to pacing and bouncing, "That when you showed up at that party, you threw off all the calculations the butterfly freak had made because if you could get there that fast then maybe she could as well. Her being there didn't prove that she was on the guest list, right? So now he wants to prove it for sure or just grab the earrings and run. There's something following her. It was waiting in her room when she got back from the big blue museum climbing monster battle. It had gone through all her stuff."
"Looking for the miracle stone," Chat said.
"Guess so, or a photo album labeled, 'My Adventures as Ladybug,' which you'd think is ridiculous but she used to keep a journal when she was younger so you know, she's a bit of an idiot herself sometimes. Now it's following her around, waiting for some kind of proof or to be able to steal her stone and run off home," she said.
"You have her stone," he pointed out waving a hand at her red suit.
"I do which is why we should probably get going because I'm not 'the chosen one' and so Tikki can only keep my transformation in place for about an hour and it hurts her to do it and we're going to run out of time," she said.
"How did you get her earrings?" Chat asked.
"She found the invisible thing in her room, came to my place instead, and conveniently forgot her bag on my sofa. Let me tell you, I had a heart attack when the apple with eyes climbed out of it. Sorry Tikki, you're not an apple. I'm just stressed. Can they hear you when you're transformed?" she asked.
"I honestly don't know," he said, "What's the plan that we're running out of time for?"
"Being seen publicly," not-Ladybug said, "You knew right away I wasn't her though, so maybe it won't work?"
"I know her better than most people," he said.
"Right. So public sighting is still a go? Where do we go and how do we get down?" she asked.
He ended up having to half carry her as they made the Eiffel Tower run. Most of the pictures that people had of Ladybug and Chat Noir that didn't come from an Akuma battle, came from this path. They ran it often. It was public and it was relatively well lit and took them along lower buildings that could be seen from people's windows and through parks where they could be seen by just about everyone. Chat also made a bit of a show of climbing up to the first level of crossbeams on the tower itself.
"Good enough?" he asked once they were there.
"That was awesome. Do you always go that fast?" she asked.
Chat laughed. He had been slowing it down to give her time to get her footing and to make sure there were lots of chances for people to notice them going by and get a picture. She was kicking her feet and leaning out to look at the city. He grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back.
"I should have brought my phone. This is awesome. We need to do this again so I can take a selfie. I need a selfie of climbing the side of the Eiffel Tower with Chat Noir," she said.
He sighed.
"I don't even care that you're a sourpuss and you're all sad that your girlfriend isn't here. I got to climb the Eiffel Tower with Chat Noir. That's awesome," she said, "Next time I'm bringing my phone."
The miracle stone wasn't beeping but she started shifting like there were ants in her suit. She had fallen silent, which hadn't happened since she'd arrived on the roof and made him worry about her. She was going to lose the transformation and that would be a problem. He pulled her onto his back so that he could move fast and took them off down another boulevard where there wouldn't be as many people to notice them. He made a vault with the baton to skip from one block to the next and she screamed in his ear as they plummeted back to earth.
"You could get hit by a train in this suit and it would hurt the train more than it would hurt you. Even if I dropped you, you'd be fine. Please stop screaming," he told her once he'd put her down on the ground in an empty alley.
"That was so cool but, dude, if you drop me, I might have push you in front of a train just to test that theory, don't drop me," she said. She was unsteady on her feet.
"Will you be alright if I leave you to turn back or do you want me to stay?" he asked.
"You should go. I am under strict orders that you aren't to be told who she is," she said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because she's pretty sure that if you knew who she was and where to find her then you'd try and help and end up with the Akuma trailing you as well. She's already had to go into hiding, you need to be out doing heroic things because if you carrying me around Paris has proved anything, I sure as hell can't fill those shoes. Did you know Regular-Her falls up stairs and once sewed her own finger with a sewing machine? She had to go to the emergency room because she has the coordination of a drunk sloth. I love her but she's a klutz. Then I find out she regularly swings around Paris on a child's toy," she shook the yo-yo, "And saves peoples lives. It's mind boggling, really."
Chat laughed and his heart lurched in his chest to imagine his Ladybug as someone clumsy. His expression fell into something serious.
"Do something for me?" he asked, she nodded, "Make sure she knows that if she needs me, ever, for anything, she can come find me. She can show up at my door in the middle of the night in her civilian clothes if she needs to. My identity isn't more important than her safety. Ever."
"She's not going to go for that. Pretty sure you're more important to her than just about anything else but I'll pass it on," she said.
He stared at her.
"Yeah, she's not so good at sharing her feelings. She was in love with this boy at school for years and couldn't even look him in the eye without forgetting how words work but trust me, she has a bit of a thing for you. So sad for you though, means that she isn't going to come visit until we manage to convince her Akuma buddy to go the hell away. But we can do that, you and I," she said.
She elbowed him in the ribs like they were old friends and then turned and pushed her way through the nearest door. He hesitated a split second too long before opening it. He was looking at a short empty hallway. She'd already gone. He edged forward, ears swiveling but she must have pushed through into whatever was beyond the other door.
The door at the other end of the hall opened with a clatter and he pushed himself back into the shadows as a man in a messy chef's uniform pushed past carrying a bag of garbage and grumbling about idiot kids. The noise of a busy kitchen cut off as the door swung shut behind the chef. Chat kept his back flat to the wall until the man had dropped off the trash and then come back through again.
He told himself it was a good thing he'd lost the girl who wasn't Ladybug.
Because Ladybug was right.
He wasn't going to be able to stay away if he knew where she was and that she wasn't safe. He was less concerned with his own identity than he was by the prospect that he would be confirming for anyone watching that she was Ladybug and that would just put her in more danger. He told himself over and over and over as he walked home that this was for the best. And yet, not being able to reach her, not being able to help, felt too much like abandoning her for it to sit right.
When he was himself again he sent her a message that he knew wouldn't go through, "I'm right here if you need me."
Author Notes:
The sewing your finger thing actually happened to a cosplayer friend of mine. I don't think the machine succeeded in going all the way through her finger but it made it through her nail and she needed to go to emergency. She almost didn't get her costume done in time for the con. I think she had to sew it while one of her fingers was bandaged up twice the size of the others and unbendable. Fun times and very Marinette.
Also, goddamn but I love writing Alya - yes it is Alya, I think that's obvious but if it isn't then let this be your confirmation - I love her exuberance and her immediate gear shift from "must discover Ladybug's identity" to "must lie and risk self and protect best friend's identity at all costs even from her boyfriend."
(The next chapter is going to be an extremely long phone calls with Alya that will hopefully fill in some of the questions of WHAT JUST HAPPENED if you've got such questions).
