Part III. Something Right.
Marinette was in bed. Blue eyes opened wide as she stared at the ceiling. ohmygod, ohmygod. What was wrong with her? Was she really that fickle? Her hand rose to her neck, touching the charm attached to the silver chain. The teenager walked towards her mirror, looking at how the necklace looked on Marinette.
It was really an adorable present, but since Marinette rarely wore necklaces (or that much jewelry, to tell the truth), it stood out far too much for her to just wear it around. Sighing, she reached behind and carefully took it off.
The ladybug twinkled, as it dangled from the chain, and her lips quirked in a small smile, feeling the telling heat on her cheeks. But it had to be done, Marinette opened a small box on her nightstand and carefully placed the necklace there, before going to bed.
There. Solved. She would take care of the necklace, but she couldn't wear it in public. Marinette closed her eyes, but she could feel the necklace presence right beside her. She tried to sleep, closing her eyes forcefully but to no avail. After a while, she simply groaned and sat up on the bed.
Time for a new plan. She took out the necklace and walked over to the desk in her room. "Something has to work here" she muttered, eyeing the designs she had, before her eyes fell on a single abandoned bracelet on her desk. Yeees, that would do.
The bad part about finishing her bracelet last night, was that she was pretty much dead on her feet today. Why did she do this to herself? "We need to go earlier than usual" she told Tikki, gathering her books and shoving them into her bag "I need coffee, and my parents won't let me have it as strong as I need it" she yawned.
She then picked up the bracelet and tied it to her wrist. There. No one would be the wiser now. The dark haired girl touched the charm, looking it a couple of times, before tucking it inside the braid.
"Well, he IS cute, you know?" Tikki offered, flitting around the girl's wrist. The Kwami had to admit it, the bracelet had been a genius idea, "and he clearly cares about you. Would it really be the worst thing int he world to like him back?"
A strangled noise left Marinette's mouth, it was far too early for all of this, and she was too sleepy to deal with all the conflicting thoughts right now. "But what does that make me Tikki? I mean, I still like Adrien, would it be fair to anyone that I'd kissed Chat last night? They don't deserve this" The girl rubbed her face tiredly. "I feel like the worst person in the world" she finished, shoulders slumped.
Tikki approached Marinette "That's not true!" she exclaimed, nuzzling her softly. "You're just confused Marinette. But don't worry, I know you'll make the right decision." Marinette sighed, giving a hopeful little shrug, before opening her purse, putting some cookies inside and allowing Tikki to get settled in.
Now, Adrien had decided what he wanted to do. He needed to try and make Marinette connect the dots between him and Chat Noir. Now, there was clearly a small part of him that was downright terrified that she wouldn't like him as a whole. Both Chat and Adrien. And God, he needed someone who was able to see the whole of him… someone he didn't have to hide from.
So. Basically? The plan was help Marinette connect the dots. And that was as far as he'd gotten today. Make Marinette realize the truth. Other than that? The page was blank. He was pretty sure that if he came up to her and said 'Hey Ladybug, it's me, Chat Noir', the girl might just drop dead.
A thing he hadn't accounted in today's plan? Marinette was actively avoiding him. While his shy classmate was never really forward, she would at least try and talk to him. Today, other than waving hello outside of school as she walked by with Alya, he had barely gotten to interact with her.
This wouldn't do.
"I will ask her out for you if you don't do it yourself…" threatened Nino, "What's wrong? You're even more distracted than usual" Which, considering Adrien's latest venture in Marinette watching… was a feat.
"Is it just me, or is Marinette being weird today?" he asked, no point in hiding the main issue of his problems today. "I think she's avoiding us"
Us. Just Adrien. Whatever.
Nino looked at where Marinette was standing with a confused Alya, doing an active effort not to look in their direction. The boy gave Alya a confused look, glancing quickly between the nervous Marinette and the befuddled Adrien.
This was all the incentive Alya needed, before grabbing Marinette's arm and dragging her to the nearby girl's bathroom. Marinette, of course, squeaked at the sudden pull, but allowed herself to be dragged, covering her face with her free hand as Alya pointed out "Girl, your arms are really strong, how did that happen?" before the door swung close and the boys were left outside of the conversation.
Once inside the bathroom, Alya cornered her friend "Come on now, spill. What happened?"
"What? Alya? No.. uh… nothing happened, really." Marinette attempted to defend herself. "I uh… just had a late night." That much was true. She did need to catch up on some sleep. "I'm just… tired"
Alya's eyes narrowed, carefully looking at her best friend, before stepping away and checking the bathroom for any eavesdroppers, opening each stall to make sure they were alone. Once she was satisfied, she turned back to Marinette "Do I need to kill him?" She asked "Because I will. Famous or not, I will break him in two if he did something to hurt you"
The first answer Alya could get was the blank look on Marinette's face. "What? Who?" She meant Adrien"Adrien?" She said, loudly shushing her friend, looking nervously around "He hasn't done anything!" she flailed, "That's not it!"
"Then why are you ignoring him like he kicked your pet puppy?" Alya asked, tilting her head, thoroughly confused by the turn of events. Adrien was clearly noticing Marinette lately. There were plenty good developments in that area, which should clearly make his friend happy.
Kicked a puppy, for crying out loud. (Kitty maybe.Figuratively speaking though). "You know he'd never do something like that!" she said, frantically looking around, because she was just sure that Chloe would have popped up out of nowhere to mock her. The Blonde just had those kind of powers.
Thankfully, luck was on her side right now. Marinette closed her eyes and slumped against the wall. "I have to tell you something." she said, wondering how she was going to make this story work, without giving up her secret identity. She just really needed her best friend right now, even if this situation overlapped into her alter ego's life. "I'm really confused Alya, it's terrible!"
"Confused about…?" Alya began, tilting her head at her friend "Do you not like Adrien anymore?" That would have been downright shocking. Her friend drooled over the blond boy, and such a sudden change without Adrien having done anything wrong… "WHO IS HE?" Alya cried, brown eyes widening comically behind her glasses. Who could it be? "Is it Nathanaël?" she asked, remembering how the boy had been pining over Marinette awhile ago, "Because I'm pretty sure he's more of a Ladybug fan now…" Alya had seen the sketches. She'd even featured some of them on her blog!
Marinette covered her face with her hands, throughly mortified. "It's not him…" she said "He's… uh… not from school" she said. Well as far as she knew, he wasn't; so that was not a lie.
"Aaand, what happened?" Alya pressed, thoroughly invested in the story now. Whoever it was, he had enoughMojo to distract the hopelessly infatuated Marinette from boy wonder outside… well, he most certainly had Alya's respect, whoever he was.
The bathroom door opened, causing Marinette's eyes to widen in panic and Alya say "Sorry, out of service for now!" she gave her best apologetic look to the poor girl as she pushed the door closed. "Alright. Where were we? Spill."
The blue eyed girl paused… how could she explain this in a way that sort of made sense to Alya? "Uh…" she began, her hands fidgeting nervously. "We kind of spent time together last night…" she trailed off, fully aware that her story was not detailed enough for her best friend "We… almost kissed?" she said, her voice lowering up to a whisper at the end as she winced, in preparation for her best friend's reaction.
It was the right choice. "YOU WHAT?!" Alya cried "so you're telling me now that you had a date?! And I didn't know!"
Marinette flailed, in hopeless attempt to quiet down her friend. "It wasn't like that!" she said "It just sort of happened!" she explained, a hopeless look taking over her pretty face.
"Alright. So that happened. Shouldn't you be all cool and that around Adrien now?"
"It's not like that!" Marinette said "I… still like him, and everything had been… so great at school now, that I thought that he actually saw me now, and now this happened, and I feel like worst person in the world…" the girl slumped dramatically against the wall, her head hitting it with a soft thud. "I mean, how fickle do you have to be?"
"I see." Alya said, "And how do you plan to solve this problem?"
"I don't know…"
"Ok. Here's what I think" Alya said, holding one finger up "first, you're not dating Adrien, because both of you act like sloths when it comes to interacting with each other, so you shouldn't feel bad because you met someone else. His loss." A second finger was held, as Marinette listened attentively "Second, if you like this new guy, maybe you should give it a shot. ah ah ah… not done yet!" Alya waved her friend off, who seemed determined to interrupt her. "You can like two people at the same time. It's completely normal." Honestly, Marinette was amazing at making problems so much worse than what they needed to be. "And third, if you think you like both of them, then you need to spend time with them and figure out who like best. Problem solved!"
"It's not that easy Alya…"
The redheaded girl was looking at her phone, tapping furiously and scrolling through something Marinette couldn't see. Once she had seemingly found it, she turned to Marinette and gave her a serious look "Marinette. You're my best friend. Do you trust me?"
Marinette stuttered, this seemed awfully serious "Of course I do… why?"
"Promise that you'll play along, and whatever you do. don't. freak. out." she said, dragging her friend outside of the bathroom, just as the bell rang, signaling the time to head to their next class.
"Uhh" Marinette had a very weird feeling about this, but she simply nodded her agreement and then followed her friend to class"
Outside of the bathroom both Nino and Adrien were standing with similar looks on their face. Pure, unaltered bafflement. "I think" Nino said, turning back to Adrien, as Alya's voice shrieked words neither of them could make out and the poor student was dispatched to another bathroom "We should give them some privacy". Adrien nodded wordlessly, his green eyes glancing at the closed door with a curious look on his face.
Girls were weird.
The boys were already settled in their seats when the girls arrived. Thankfully, the teacher had yet to arrive, so they were on time. A beep turned her attention to her phone, brown eyes checking out the screen carefully before a proud smile took over her face. 'Good' Alya thought. Time for her plan…
"Hey Nino!" the girl said, cheerily greeting her classmate (for the second time that day) "so, you know that new paranormal activity movie that came out?"
"Yeah" Nino said, not quite sure what the bespectacled girl was up to just yet. "I still haven't seen it, so no spoilers!" he warned.
Alya waved him off, before continuing. "So, turns out that my mom has a couple of tickets left out that expire today" she said "you know, hotels have those to give to guests if they're angry…that whole hospitality thing, you know" She waved her hand, dismissing the idea as completely understood.
That was only a technical lie. She had texted her mother, begging her to buy the tickets online and to send her the voucher. Which she had, just before she'd started this whole conversation, with the added question that she expected details once Alya got home.
Marinette had begun to catch on Alya's plan, but was currently far too mortified to say anything about it. Adrien, was tuning into the conversation, eyeing the redheaded girl with a curious expression, before Alya spoke up again. "So anyway" Alya continued, "do you guys want to join us?" she asked, turning to both Nino and Adrien with the most innocent look she could muster on her face. "Today, six?" She said, giving Nino the most meaningful look she could, hoping that he caught her drift and would go along with it.
Considering just how interested Nino in Adrien not being a creepy zombie anymore, he was all in for Alya's plan. "That sounds great!" he said, fist bumping Alya before turning to Adrien "I'm in? Can you make it?" he asked the blond boy.
"Yeah" he said, chancing a glance to a still petrified Marinette, just as the teacher finally made it to the classroom. "We can go get something to eat after" he said, feeling rather proud that he got a small smile and nod out of Marinette.
Alright, it seemed that Adrien would have a chance to work his plan sooner than he thought.
Once the boys had turned back to their seats, Marinette got out a small scrap of paper, and she furiously scribbled, before carefuly sliding it over to her best friend. Alya sighed and wrote back, eyeing the teacher before sliding the note back to her friend.
what was THAT?
'That's how you'll get to know if adrien him, is still the one you like. If not? you know that the other one who must not be named is the one.
I hate you'
You love me. You'll thank me later ;)
The paper went back and forwards a couple of minutes, until Marinette was able to function normally. Somewhat. At least she didn't feel like smashing her face on her desk until she passed out, and was forced to miss the double date.
Oh my goodness. They had a double date. And she had wanted to kiss Chat just last night. Clearly she was out of control. Marinette had no idea how she was going to survive this afternoon without spontaneously combusting or something along those lines.
The good thing about going to the movies was that one didn't have to talk to the people next to you during it.
Of course, if you asked Marinette, besides from the fact that the movie had been about ghosts, possessions and all that scary stuff, she had absolutely no real idea what it was about. Sure, she had jumped at the appropriated moments, since jump scares didn't require her paying actual attention to the plot; but there was something even more important going on here: Adrien's knee kept on brushing along hers. Also, their fingers kept on bumping as they shared popcorn; since Alya was too busy sharing with Nino on her other side.
Spontaneous combustion seemed like a real possibility. Marinette had never been more thankful that movie theaters were dark places, or else everyone else would have noticed that her face was hot enough to melt the artic.
Soon enough, the movie was over and the group of teenagers left the theater. "There's an arcade nearby" Nino said "We can play games and get something to eat over there" Sure enough, they all agreed and they headed to the place.
"It's kind of packed" Alya mentioned, the moment they stepped through the door. "How about this, We'll" she said, nodding towards Nino "go save a table for us. You two, go get us credits so we can play" With that, the two disappeared towards the tables, leaving Adrien alone with Marinette.
Marinette was going to murder Alya. No one could blame her, no one would ever toss her in jail. She had saved Paris far too many times… she deserved a freebie. This was the most evident set up in the history of set ups.
"Alright then" Adrien said, looking at their friends as they disappeared between the crowd. Sure, their intentions were good, but the execution lacked…subtlety. He then turned to Marinette, flashing her a friendly smile and "shall we then?" he said, mock curtseying as he followed her towards the games area.
"Ooh! they have prizes!" Marinette pointed out, looking at the assorted cheap trinkets that adorned the shelves. They ranged between hair ties to gigantic plushies.
"Cool!" he said, looking at the prizes. "How do you win them?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck, flashing the blue eyed girl a shy smile.
Right. Adrien had been homeschooled, and he had just began going to school with more people his age. Chances were that he wasn't taken to places like this on his spare time when he was younger. But instead of remarking on that, Marinette decided that she would simply explain along. "You have to play the games with that logo on them" she pointed at a sticker on the wall "and get enough tickets to earn them"
Adrien nodded, looking at the rather high ticket-prices of the bigger prizes. How hard could it be, right? "Come on then!" he said, turning to the cashier "Four cards, please" he said, slliding the money on the tray.
"Adrien don't!" Marinette complained "you bought the food at the movies!" It didn't feel right for him to pay for this also.
"It's not a big deal" he said, "my treat"
"But…"
"Come on Marinette" Adrien said, flashing his most confident smile. "let me treat you this time" He paused and added. "You can pick what we play"
What we play? Marinette paused, a small blush tinging her cheeks. That made it sound as if they would be playing … oh heavens, Adrien wanted to spend his time here with her. This afternoon was going to be the death of her.
"Ah.. Alright, I guess" she said, fidgeting a little. Adrien flashed her a bright smile, and while Marinette's face flushed red, she began thinking that maybe, this hadn't been such a bad idea. She waited for Adrien to purchase the credits, looking at the prizes before she heard his voice by her ear, startling her out of her daydreaming.
"Alright my lady" he said, before offering his arm for her to take, doing his best to keep his smile as charming as possible. Oh, Adrien knew exactly what he was doing, and he couldn't help but feel ridiculously proud of it. Marinette was startled for a second, and maybe treating her like he liked to treat his lady was a good way to help her guide her to the missing pieces of the puzzle. "What game shall we play first?" He looked around, recognizing only some of the games "What is that?"
Marinette turned around, looking at a tall machine surrounded by light bulbs "Oh, that is like jumping rope, you just need to jump whenever the light is by your feet?" She tilted her head at him "Do you want to try that one first"
"Ladies' choice" Adrien replied, though the curiosity in his eyes betrayed that he wanted to try that one first.
"Let's go then" Marinette said. Then, they were standing in front of the machine, checking the instructions. "alright, each turn is one and a half minutes" She loaded the credits inside, and turned towards Adrien, ready to ask him if he wanted to go first, just as he said
"It's starting" the blond pointed out.
The blue eyed girl squeaked, turning towards the machine and hopping to make the first jump. Guess it was her turn first. "Oh!" She squeaked, hopping carefully as the game begun marking up her score "Oh God I hope I won't fall" she muttered, not quite aware that she was in fact speaking out loud.
"Don't worry," Adrien said, leaning against the side of the machine "I'll catch you." He said, adding a wink for good measure. Which was a very suave move in his opinion, if only he could control the blush that he could just feel was tinging his face. How come this didn't happen when he was Chat?
It seemed that the mask did help from time to time.
That did her in. Clearly it seemed that Adrien still had it in him to make her absolutely speechless. Marinette's only reply was a squeak as she kept on jumping. Where the hell was Alya? She needed rescue right now. Someone needed to save her, she was going to die.
What was her life?
After a while, Nino and Alya had caught up with them, and among the four of them, they'd gathered a decent amount of tickets. They all sat on the table, surrounded by their drinks, fries and burgers. The ridiculous amount of tickets they had gathered was off to the side, waiting for them to finish eating to finally count it down; Right now it was time to munch on some junk food.
After the experience today, Marinette had reverted to her previous quietness. There was just so much in her head, that there was barely enough attention left for her to interact with the three people in front of her. Adrien had been… flirty. And that was not something Marinette was ever used to. The blond boy was usually nice to her, yes; but the whole winking thing was… not something she could have ever prepared for.
Thankfully, Alya and Nino had joined them before Marinette could successfully combust; and with them present, Adrien dialed back on the flirting. Though he still kept fairly close to her; much to Alya's and Nino's disbelief.
For Adrien, the knowledge he held was a confidence booster. He could see how the blue eyed girl reacted to him with surprise and curiosity and he decided he would take it as a good sign. Granted, he wasn't sure how Marinette would react once she knew, but he knew that he wanted her to cross that line and see just who he was. He was also quite impatient, which would account for the amount of times Marinette had squeaked in his presence today.
Right now the blue eyed girl was quietly munching on some fries; same as he was; and as she moved her hand to get more fries, he could see the hint of the charm, dangling delicately from between the thick threads of the bracelet. Adrien would have to admit, the rush that seeing her wear it had yet to pass. To tell the truth, it actually gave him confidence in this crazy plan of his to 'woo' the girl. As badly planned as this whole thing was, he was at least trying, and she seemed to warm up to him well enough.
Sure, she was still awkward around his civilian self, but other than squeak at his completely suave attempts at flirting, she had yet to run away, or tell him to stop.
He would take that as a victory.
"Heeey!" Alya's voice distracted him (and apparently Marinette as well) from their daydreaming. "That's new" The girl reached for Marinette's hand, "ooh, how cute!"
Marinette looked flustered, as she tried her best to hide the accessory from Alya "Oh. It was just lying there" she lied, her cheeks blushing slightly, doing her best to pull her arm back without fully snatching it out of Alya's grasp.
"Oh, there's something there" Alya added, poking at the threads, as the hints of the charm peeked from between the threads"
Ok. So this, Marinette would not be able to explain "Oh, really? I hadn't seen that" she lied, nimble fingers pushing the charm safely inside the threads. "We should count the tickets!" she said, hoping to distract the group with the promise of prizes.
"Oh right!" Alya said, grabbing a bunch of tickets and separating them in four. "Here you go" she said, placing a small amount of them in front of each "Now count!"
They finished counting soon enough, and by then, most of their food had disappeared from the table "Alright" Nino announced, looking up from the napkin he was writing on to add all the numbers "final countdown… 2198" The boy turned his eyes towards his friends. "I'd say that's a great haul. We should see what we could get with this"
It was then that they heard a loud crash.
Both Adrien and Marinette perked up immediately. 'Oh come on, not today' was the thought in both their heads as an Akuma's cackles boomed loudly as people ran. His body was strong, almost covered in what seemed the outer shell of classic arcade games, giving him a robotic appearance. His power seemed to be turning people into mindless drones, who… semeed intent on trashing the whole place. Yikes.
"I am Wreckage!" The akuma said, "You will all join my level"
Of course.
The foursome looked at the direction of the akuma and his quickly forming army. "Alya no!" Marinette said, quickly grabbing her friend's cellphone, before the redheaded decided to get in harm's way to get the first look at Ladybug and Chat noir.
She needed to transform now.
Unfortunately, her voice had alerted the Akuma of their presence and he turned towards them with an evil glint in his red eyes. Of course, he aimed at them, and they were saved only by Adrien's quick reflexes at upturning their table so that it didn't hit any of them.
"We need to get out of here" Adrien said, and all friends nodded, now crouching behind their make shift refuge. "The emergency exit is right over there" It was not far away, thankfully, and the Akuma didn't seem to move very fast, so if they moved fast enough, they could make it. "Are you ready?"
He needed to shake them so he could transform as well, there wasn't enough he could do as Adrien. Same with Marinette, she needed some privacy soon. But first, they had to get them out of there. The Akuma's minions were turning the place into disaster zone, so it wouldn't be long until they found them. "Alright, now!" The group ran towards the exit, but once they pushed the emergency door open, an alarm rang out, catching the attention of not only the Akuma, but its possessed minions.
"GET THEM!" said the booming voice, and the possessed civilians left what they were doing to head on towards the group.
"Run!" Marinette said, shoving her friends through the door, panicked looking for a private spot to transform. Soon enough the minions had caught up with them, forcing them to run outside. It was then when Marinette noticed "Adrien!" she said, looking frantically around once she realized that only Alya and Nino had made it outside with her.
What she had missed inside, was that Adrien had caught sight of a supply closet, and once everything seemed to take a turn for the worse, he had launched himself at it. He didn't think much of it, one of them had to be in their superhero shape if they wanted to make it out of it. He launched inside of it "Plagg, now!" he said, swiftly beginning his transformation.
Outside, a very determined Marinette had gone right back into the building, what if something had happened to Adrien? She couldn't forgive herself! And had just opened her purse to let Tikki out, when Chat Noir landed in front of her.
"Chat Noir" she exclaimed, hating the blush that had appeared on her face once she saw him, just as she snapped her purse closed once again. She couldn't give out her identity. "I uh…" she stuttered, hiding her hands behind her back as she tried to find a way to explain her presence back in the building.
"It's not really safe here, Princess" he told her, "follow me!" he took a hold of her hand and lead her to another part of the building.
Guh. Marinette's shoulder slumped, but allowed herself to be dragged anyway. She needed privacy! And she couldn't transform while Chat was right there. The blond hero led her to a back room that had yet to be trashed by the Akuma.
"There my lady!" he said, tipping an imaginary hat in her direction. "Wouldn't want you to get hurt" he winked in her direction.
Marinette was annoyed now. Not only had he prevented her from transformation, but he was flirting with her? After that moment with ladybug just last night? How dare he!? She battled the hurt that crushed her at the moment, choosing annoyance as a way to deal with her feelings. Mainly because now was definitely not the time for this. "Why are you such a flirt?" She asked him, blue eyes narrowing at the superhero, hands on her hips as she glared "How many girls do you flirt like this with?" Honestly, how could anyone trust anything the stupid, stupid cat said?
Chat grinned. "Just the one" he said, leaning forward to grab her hand, placing a kiss on her bare hand, which only elicited a small huff out of the girl. But before she complained, Chat grinned up at her, his finger playing with the small ladybug dangling from her bracelet and winked at her, before running off.
Well, he had to give her the privacy she needed.
Marinette stood there, blue eyes opened wide for what seemed far too long and mouth comically agape. 'What had just happened? Chat…. the charm….'
Craaaaap.
"Marinette, we need to transform now!" Tikki's voice awoke her from the beginning of a panic attack. "Chat can hold him off for a while, but you need to destroy the akuma!"
"Right!" the girl shook her head, it was not the time for that. "Tikki, transform"
She needed to save the day before she could kill that cat.
Alright. Ladybug could enter the scene aaaany second now. He had managed to dodge the beam rays that the Akuma shot at him, but he was sort of getting tired of being flung around by the minions. There were going to be some bruises tomorrow…
Besides, he needed her lucky charm and cleansing light to be able to really defeat this akuma.
"Not so fast Wreckage!" That very familiar voice of Ladybug made Chat's shoulders relax slightly. Phew. "We're here to stop you! You will not destroy our city!"
The girl jumped and dove, dodging the beams that the Akuma shot at her, before landing next to Chat, both heroes hiding behind a turned table. "Do you know where the akuma is?" she asked the blond hero.
"I think it's the gun" He said "It looks just like the ones from the games. Also, I think that the games are important to him. He doesn't leave that area" he added, pointing to where all the games are.
Blue eyes glanced at the gun. He did seem to have a point. Maybe he got his energy from being close of the functioning arcades. "And the minions?"
"Most of them locked inside the kitchen." A loud crash coming from that direction proved his point "I don't think it's going to hold too long" cue a mountain of dishes crashing on the ground.
"right" she said, "we should probably get this done soon" she also wanted to make sure Adrien was alright. "Can you distract him for a bit so I can conjure up Lucky Charm?" She asked him.
"Of course my Lady" Chat said, winking as he hopped on top of some tables "Hey!" he said, throwing some empty napkin cases and condiments at the large Akuma. "Over here!"
Ladybug gave him a small look. Subtlety had never been one of her Chat's qualities. One of Chat's qualities. Not her Chat. Just… Chat.
Gah.
"Lucky Charm!" Marinette called out, before eyeing at the object in her hands…. What? A water bomb? This was atoy. What was she supposed to do with this? Quickly she began looking around, looking for the telling spots marked up that would help her strategize better.
Yo-yo, panel, gun.
OH. She got it now. She needed to turn the power out, so that the arcade games would die out, probably(hopefully?) weakening Wreckage long enough to take his gun.
IT was then that she heard a loud crash and turned just as Chat flew across the room, crashing against the remains of a shelf, slamming his head rather hard against the wall. "Chat!" she cried out "Are you ok?"
The boy spit on the ground, wiping his face with his sleeve, removing what seemed to be blood. "I'm alright my Lady" he said, though it was clear that standing upright was a bit of a task now.
Oh no. No one would hurt her kitty. Ladybug took a running start, jumping on one of the Akuma's sturdy legs to propel herself towards the power box, launching the bomb straight at it. Thankfully she managed to hit, and the water was enough to cause a short circuit that turned off the games that surrounded the Akuma.
"M… Lady! The Gun!" Chat called out, supporting his weight against a shelf. Nothing seemed broken, but it seemed that he had at least bruised a rib.
Ladybug landed gracefully on the floor, launching her yoyo to take the gun from the now weak Wreckage. "I'll take that, thank you very much" and once the gun was in her grasp, she broke the toy over her knee, releasing a black butterfly.
Once the butterfly was cleansed, Ladybug ran towards Chat, who was holding his hand up, ready for their characteristic fist bump after every successful fight. Instead, she carefully grasping his face in her hand, inspecting the damage. "You got hurt" she said, eyeing the cut right below his lower lip.
"Aw. My Lady cares" Chat joked, flashing her a sassy smile, before wincing. Moving his face hurt.
She rolled her eyes, and swatted lightly at him. Way to ruin the moment. "Don't push it" she said, before her eyes widened at Chat's wince "Oh my God, what's wrong?"
"Ah, nothing a little rest won't take care of, Princess" he said, grinning at her, before his ring began beeping again. 'Really Plagg? really?' "But it seems I have to cut this meeting short this time" He stepped upright and did his best to walk away, though it was clear to her that he favored his right side.
"Chat…" she began, but was quickly interrupted by him.
"My lady, don't worry about your chat" he said, winking at her. "You'll see me soon enough." With that, he disappeared through a door and she was all alone inside, the beeping of her earrings alerted her that she didn't have that much time either. And she still had to find Adrien. But it seemed that it was a job for Marinette, since her transformation wouldn't hold that much longer.
Ladybug ran towards a supply closet and transformed back. She emerged from the closet and called out a cautious "Adrien?" she looked around, "Are you alright?"
The blond boy emerged from another room, wincing slightly at every step. "Marinette? What are you doing here?" he asked, knowing fully well that he should have gone home, but not wanting to worry the girl and his friends.
"You weren't outside…" she began, fidgeting shyly. "I was… uh… worried"
"Yeah." Adrien attempted to run his hand through his hair, but the movement was more than he could handle at this moment, so he winced. "I was… delayed. Someone pushed me into some furniture… so…"
Marinette's eyes widened "you're hurt!" she said, stepping closer to examine him.
Now, it was Adrien's turn to stutter. Because while he had been trying to push parts of his superhero persona into his civilian life, he had never had Marinette so close to him; other than last night. But that was while both of them had their transformations on. Everything was just so much simpler then.
Her hands touched his face lightly, and while this was a replica of what had just happened between Chat and Ladybug last night, but feeling her actual fingertips were enough to render him speechless. "Uh" he began, flushing at their closeness "It's just a scratch, it'll heal soon"
If Marinette could have had eyes on Tikki, she could have seen the sweet Kwami roll her eyes and face palm inside of Marinette's purse. Honestly, for a girl this smart, Marinette could be really, really oblivious from time to time.
It was then that Alya and Nino burst through the door "ARE YOU OKAY?" Alya's worry lasted as much as it took her to make sure that both of their friends were ok. It was then that her journalist side took over "I missed them, didn't I?"
"Uh… yeah" Marinette said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I… em… I just heard them. I was locked in there," she pointed at the door where she had just de-transformed.
"I… never made it outside, I got shoved around there" he said, pointed to a random spot in the restaurant. His cellphone begun ringing "Hold on a sec" he said, before stepping a couple of feet away to speak on his phone.
That was not where he pointed out before… Marinette said nothing though, maybe he was concussed or something. "Well, today was an adventure, right?" she said, to Nino and Alya. "You guys didn't see anything? I can't believe I missed the chance to see Ladybug again!" she lamented, doing her best to make it sound as honest as she possibly could.
A couple of feet away, Adrien chatted on the phone, though the group only heard half the conversation. "What? But it's safe now" he said, sighing "yes…. fine. Let me know when you arrive"
A now dejected Adrien walked back towards the group. "I think I have to go home now" he said, his green eyes disappointed as he gave the news "they're sending the car to pick me up" On one side, he was disappointed at having to cut the evening short, on the other side, he really wasn't sure if he'd be up for walking back home. His side was killing him right now.
Collective sounds of disappointment left the three other teens, "dude, you should get that looked at" Nino said, eyeing the cut on the blond's face.
"Yeah… I'll get that checked out at home" Adrien said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Nino, we should see if we can find the tickets." Alya said, and quickly dragged Nino towards the table they had shared before all hell broke lose.
So once more, Adrien and Marinette were left alone. The two teens looked at each other shyly, before Marinette broke the silence "You should put some peroxide on it, and some…"
"I had a lot of fun today" Adrien interrupted, before Marinette could finish her thought, and speaking before he could fully plan ahead what he was saying.
"oh…" Marinette blushed harder than before "I had fun too". The dark haired girl began fidgeting in front of him, biting her lower lip nervously.
They fell into another silence, both teens attempting to control their nervousness, but unfortunately, his cellphone beeped. "Ah." Adrien said, checking the screen before looking towards the door. "I… have to go now" he began, green eyes turning towards where both their friends had disappeared to "Can you tell them that I had to go?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Great, uh… bye Marinette" he said, quickly leaning over to plant a soft peck on her cheeks before retreating as fast as his injured side allowed him. Had Marinette not been fully distracted, she would have noticed how he favored his right side as he walked.
Marinette's reply was a breathless "bye" as the blond blushed and waved bye back at her; her hand reaching to touch her face where she could almost feel the imprint of his lips.
Alya and Nino, however, had been watching the whole exchange from behind a vending machine. And once Adrien left, Alya knew that she had to arrive to give moral support to her best friend; fearing that her friend would actually implode. "Alright, so we found pretty much all the tickets." Alya wrapped her arm around Marinette's shoulders, guiding her to where Nino was holding the tickets. "Where's Adrien?" she asked
"Uh… he had to go. The car was here" Marinette said, thankful that they weren't asking anything else, because she was quite afraid that she wasn't going to be able to form much coherent answers after everything that had happened.
Soon enough they had all gone home, and somehow, Marinette had been tricked into holding her share of tickets as well as Adrien's. By accident. Riiight.
Today was filled with emotions. There was way too much that she still needed to process. For that, she needed Tikki. Thankfully, her parents were out on date night, so she was home alone right now, which allowed Tikki to be flying out in the open, instead of simply waiting in her room. Marinette boiled some water, making herself some tea, and grabbing a plate and filling it up with cookies. "Those enough?" she asked the Kwami, who nodded enthusiastically, and Marinette added a couple more for good measure.
"So, have you come to a decision just yet?" Tikki asked, as the pair reached her room, the tea mug placed on her desk, as well as the cookie platter. However, Marinette simply collapsed on top of her bed.
"I don't know Tikki" she said, covering her face with her hands. She felt the ladybug charm cool against her heated face and the girl sat up quickly. "Chat knows" she said, eyeing Tikki with absolute horror in her face.
The Kwami looked at her, tilting her head. "Knows what?"
"Who I am!" Marinette hopped off of her bed. "How he talked to me before… It was like he knew something and … he touched the charm. Like he knew exactly where it'd be" the girl paced around her bed room. "And of course he knows the charm… he picked it for me!"
"Well wouldn't he have said something to you?" Tikki placed the cookie down, flying around the overtly stressed Marinette.
Good point. "Exactly!" She said, but that didn't seem like something he'd do, somehow. "So why hasn't he?"
Tikki pursued her lips, as if thinking of the answer. "Well… he clearly likes you. And you have been pretty adamant in keeping your identity a secret."
Marinette threw herself on the floor, staring at the ceiling as she pondered. "That's… true. I guess." She rolled on her stomach "What do you think he's waiting for?"
"I have no way of knowing, really" Tikki said "but if you asked me, I think he's waiting for you to be sure."
"Have the older ladybug and chats known the other's secret identity?"
"Yes. Plenty of times" Tikki said. "It just ends up happening when two people trust each other as much as you do. It comes with the territory I guess."
Ok. So that solved one of her problems. She guessed that nothing bad would happen if Chat knew her secret identity, even if she didn't know his. Maybe she wasn't ready for that step yet; at least not until she figured out what her feelings meant.
"I still don't know what to do about that whole thing" Marinette confessed. "I got so angry at Chat for flirting with me. I thought he was trying to cheat on mewith… me." She rolled her eyes at how ridiculous that sounded. "But he knew it was me" Marinette stood up from her spot on the ground, returning to pacing around the room. "This is too complicated." she whined, and Tikki nuzzled the side of her face in comfort. Marinette picked up the tea mug, sipping it carefully, before asking Tikki "Do you think he's okay?" she asked "He seemed pretty hurt."
Tikki had flown back to the desk, where she had busied herself with picking the next variety of cookie she was going to eat now. "Who? Adrien or Chat?" she said, currently preocuppied on the plate.
Crash.
The Kwami turned back, to face a now extremely stunned Marinette, blue eyes opened almost comically wide. The tea mug was in pieces on the floor, as well as the tea, which soaked her pants and the pretty rug that adorned the floor of her room.
Tikki looked at Marinette cautiously, approaching her slowly. What had she said that provoked this reaction…Oh.
Oh darn it.
"Mari…" Tikki said, "Please be careful, you could cut your feet on the shards!"
"I am an idiot!" Marinette exclaimed, flailing at her kwami "It was all right there!" Of course it was! Chat noir was at the arcade first, AND Adrien had been lagging behind, and… "How did I miss it?!"
She had been so obsessed with her crush on Adrien, that she had completely missed the signs that pointed to his other identity! He was also limping a little today, Just like Chat. And the cut. It was the same exact cut!
Idiot.
Also, with the nickname cross over today. Yes. Chat called Marinette Princess and Ladybug 'my lady'. Even Adrien kept on calling her 'my lady' as they walked through the arcade today.
Oh God he knew she was Marinette. And he wanted her to know!
Tikki looked at the teenager who was in the middle a full on freak out. "Marinette…" she said, trying her best to calm her down "breathe! You're worrying me here" she tried to nudge her softly so that she at least moved from where the tea mug shards could do some real damage.
"Tikki!" Marinette said, hopping away from the dangerous area, much to the Kwami's relief. "Adrien is Chat!" She whispered that last part at her Kwami, her blue eyes large with shock. "And I didn't see it!" She ran her fingers through her hair, messing up her hair, before she simply took the hair ties off, throwing them in the general direction of her bed. "And he knows it's me!" Marinette began pacing the room again, her hands by her hair as she kept on muttering and rambling on about all the clues that should have taken her to this conclusion a long time ago.
"Did you know?" she asked Tikki.
"Well, no" Tikki said, which was true. She didn't know for sure it was Adrien, although today had pretty much settled any doubt in her mind "We don't know who the other chosen one is. Not unless you choose to reveal your identities.
"We?"
"Oh, Chat has another Kwami just like me" Tikki paused "Sort of." When it came to kwami's, Plagg was another category altogether. "And even if I had known, I am not allowed to tell you. It's a discovery you two have to make. It would cheapen what you two have if I intervened in any way out of what I do now"
"Right." Marinette paused. That made sense. The girl sat on her bed again, hugging a pillow to her chest. "What do I do with this now?" she asked Tikki, feeling thoroughly exhausted
"Well, isn't this a good thing?" Tikki said, "You like two boys. They're the same person." the kwami tapped her chin, hovering above Marinette's shoulder, before landing softly. "But you don't have to do anything. Now that you know, maybe talk to him about it… only if you feel like it." Marinette nodded "But not now, you're tired, and if you try to transform now, you'll probably fall off a roof out of sheer exhaustion. And that's not good for anyone."
The girl nodded, a small smile appearing on her face as she obediently climbing into bed. Now that the surprise had worn off, her body felt extremely heavy. She was too tired to keep on thinking about this. Tomorrow though, she needed to talk to him. Alone.