Marinette/Ladybug

The next day, Adrien was once again not at school, and this time, Alya practically forced her to do something about it. "Just ring the doorbell and tell the butler or whatever that you want to see Adrien, so that you can make sure he's okay!"

Marinette was blushing furiously. "And what, bring him flowers?"

"Well, if you want to be really romantic -"

"And his house is huge, full of haughty people!" Marinette retorted. "I doubt they'd let someone like me inside."

"Yes, but if Adrien wants to see you…"

So, it seemed, it all came to that. Did Adrien really want to see Marinette? Would he be happy that he visited her, or just creeped out? Maybe he was staying home for a personal reason…?

But Marinette also knew that if this love was going to go through, she needed to be stronger. She was Ladybug, for god's sake, she could do lots of things! But maybe confronting boys isn't one of them, said a voice in her head.

No, she replied. I should do this.

And so, she took her best friend's advice. That lunch hour, she would walk over to the Agreste mansion, knock on the door, and ask to see Adrien.

After she had decided this, the day seemed to go by annoyingly fast. Before she knew it, she was leaving the school and heading down the sidewalk, right until she was at Adrien's front gates.

They towered over her, and she remembered in her last visit (when she had delivered a birthday present to Adrien, but that was much less unnerving) that a small black camera would come out of the wall and scan her. Sure enough, it did, and the voice asked, "Who's there?"

"M-Marinette," the girl replied. "I'm in Adrien's class."

The security camera slowly moved back into the wall, and the iron gates opened, allowing Marinette to walk up the front pathway until she reached the door.

Now butterflies, or perhaps ladybugs, were encasing her stomach and threatening to come out. With a shaking hand, Marinette rang the doorbell.

A woman with a tight bun and wide glasses opened the door, saying, "Hello. Can I help you?"

"Um… Adrien wasn't at school for quite some time, I was wondering if I could, er, see him?" Marinette managed to ask.

"Ah, yes, hmm… right this way." She opened the front door and led Marinette inside, and the girl noticed that she looked a little nervous.

They climbed up the grand marble staircase that started in the entrance hall, turning into another corridor on the second floor and walking for what felt like miles, of when Marinette's heart threatened to beat out of her chest, until they reached a door at the end. Engraved on the surface in gold letters, it read, Adrien.

This is it, thought Marinette.

But Natalie turned away, still looking nervous, and said, "You… you can go in when you're ready, and call me if you need me." Then she stalked off, quite stiffly.

Marinette turned back to the door and exhaled. Well, at least she would have more time to think this through, what to say to Adrien when she entered… and then she heard it.

"What is that? Can you explain that?" said an angry man's voice, and Marinette recognized it as Mr. Agreste, the famous fashion designer and also Adrien's father.

Adrien stuttered a reply, "I… I was just so desperate to get out of here, Father -"

"I don't know what you did, but this is unacceptable! Things will get worse."

Marinette, with increasing horror, wondered what Mr. Agreste was talking about, what Adrien had done. And what did he mean by, "I was so desperate to get out of here"? Was Mr. Agreste keeping his son locked in his room? She knew that he was strict with him, but that was just horrible…

Then the door opened and Marinette dove to the side, hiding behind a potted plant. She could hear Adrien shuffling around inside, wondering if this was a bad time to enter. He might be in a bad mood right then, or he might be eager to see someone…

But then Marinette worried that if Mr. Agreste caught her talking to his son, he'd do something - perhaps never let Adrien see Marinette again. She couldn't risk that, so she started back down the hallway, down floors and through corridors, not even knowing where she was going, until she ended up outside.

Panting, she looked up at the big house, which started to look a little too intimidating. No, I couldn't have talked to Adrien now, Marinette thought as she started to head back to her parents' bakery.

As she walked at a slower pace, the mix of what she had heard started to come together, and she thought it through. If Mr. Agreste really was keeping his son locked up, then that would explain why Adrien hadn't been at school. And obviously, Adrien had tried to escape…

A pang of pity for her crush fluttered in Marinette's chest, and she felt like she should do something, that Mr. Agreste's "parenting" was downright cruelty. But at the same time, she knew that Adrien's father was extremely famous, which probably wouldn't help solve the case… was she worrying about it more than she had to?

"Hey," said a small voice, and Marinette looked down at Tikki, forgetting that her kwami was there.

"Oh, sorry, Tikki…"

"Are you okay? Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I've got to tell Alya…" That was Marinette's first decision. She consulted her best friend for everything - well, except for being Ladybug, of course. And of course Alya would want to keep up with news about Adrien.

So Marinette quickened her pace back home and was soon pushing through the sweet-smelling bakery, of which could not even slow her down then. She ran up to her room and started to phone her friend.

"I think that Mr. Agreste is mean," said Tikki as she floated around Marinette's bedroom. "He shouldn't keep Adrien locked up!"

"I know," Marinette replied as she waited for her best friend to pick up. "And I doubt Adrien even did anything. His father is just extremely strict."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know…" But just then, Alya picked up.

"Hey, Marinette! What's up?"

And right away, Marinette launched into conversation about what she had seen, leaving Alya silent until it was all over.

"That's awful… Should we do something?"

And once again, with a sigh, Marinette answered, "I don't know."

Hey, sorry if I haven't been posting that fast lately, but I've just been really busy. Did you catch the newest Miraculous Ladybug episode in English, Darkblade? It was great! Anyway, keep reading, and please review! - Key