Chapter 46

After a successful return, Marinette slept for what felt like forever. She woke briefly around noon to use the bathroom, and some part of her consciousness registered that there was another human in her bed that hadn't been there when she fell asleep the night before.

Alya, her mind whispered to her, naming the human-shaped lump as she sank back into the covers before her brain shut down again and she was asleep.

The next time she woke up, it was because of a human too. Not the human in her bed. A different human standing next to her bed and looking down in amusement.

"I'm all for beauty sleep, but really." The blonde human rolled her eyes.

"Ugh." Marinette managed.

"Yes, hello to you too." Chloé was barely containing her laughter now, and Marinette could just imagine the state her hair was in.

"Time?"

"4."

"Ughh," Marinette responded again, and sat up. "Woah." She closed her eyes as black spots danced in her vision and her head spun. She reached back and patted the bed blindly to rouse Alya.

"Mmph," she groaned as Marinette's hand made contact with her cheek.

"I can come back later," Chloé raised an eyebrow. "When is the caveman convention over."

"Ha. Ha." Marinette opened her eyes, now able to see straight without the world swimming. "Food?" she called over her shoulder to Alya.

"Food," she agreed, and they both stumbled past Chloé without another word and downstairs towards the kitchen. They were used to their early morning dialect-even if it was technically late afternoon. Chloé followed them, and amused look on her face. Part of Marinette's mind registered her expression as...scheming? She was still too asleep for this, so she ignored it and gravitated towards the food-room. Kitchen, her awakening-mind corrected, but she paid it no attention.

Halfway down the steps, she registered eyes on her, and she looked towards the kitchen table. Adrien and Nino sat eating what looked like a strange combination of breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. They looked as tired as Alya and Marinette felt. Chloé was the only one that seemed to have avoided this all-encompassing fatigue. Bitch, Marinette thought affectionately before turning back to her perusal of the two male humans in the kitchen. They both looked much wider awake when they spotted the disheveled and half-alive state of the girls.

Her mind finally registering that her boyfriend was in her kitchen and she probably looked like death, Marinette squeaked and was about to turn and run back upstairs to pull herself together, Alya close on her heels, but then she stopped. Looking down at her smirking partner, she did exactly what he expected her not to do. Lifting her chin, she walked down to the kitchen with dignity, trying to forget that she had just squeaked in surprise. Alya followed her, and eyebrow raised at Marinette. She simply walked over to the sink, quickly splashed her face with cold water and took her hair out of the braid she had hastily threw it up in after her brief shower last night.

She walked over and joined the others at the table, sitting close to Adrien's side. He was smiling brilliantly at her, and she smiled shyly back before grabbing some food.

"I don't know how you're all awake right now," she looked at Adrien and Nino, yawning again as she tore into a croissant. "Wait," she sat up straighter and turned to Adrien. "Why are you here? I mean, I thought you'd be with your family."

Adrien chuckled at her, plucking half of her croissant from her hands. She really didn't know how he kept his model figure with the amount of pastries he ate. Would her bakery be the undoing of Adrien Agreste's modeling career? She was clearly still have incoherent from sleep, and tried to keep her mind on topic.

"They kicked me out. My mom claimed I was hovering, and told me to go see my beau and leave her alone." He shrugged, but looked more content then she had seen him since he discovered the photo of his mother all those weeks ago.

"Oh," she said and turned back to her food. "So what else did we miss?" She settled into his side, lifting his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders. Not for the first time, she saw the longing look in Alya's eyes at the easy gestures between them and sighed inwardly. She'd have to talk to Nino soon. This was just getting ridiculous.

Chloé roused her from her matchmaking and gave them the play-by-play of her conversation with her father.

"So, what else do we have to do?" Marinette was confused. All of this seemed very anti-climatic after the night before. They were handing it over to the Mayor and the police, as they should since it was a political matter, but it seemed too simple.

"You all, as the miraculous holders- I still don't want to be known yet if I don't have to-will publicly show support for my father during his denouncement of Germain and his followers. They released that video, and a few news stations picked it up, but it was quickly pushed to the side by the late-night Agreste story and pseudo-press conference announcing the safe return of Adela by Ladybug and Chat Noir. It should be enough to disband whatever support he managed to garner at the banquet last night."

It all sounded good, but Marinette still felt uneasy.

"Chloé-"

"I know," she cut her off. "It seems too easy."

She nodded. She'd hoped Chloé would brush her off, telling her she was just being paranoid, but no. What are we missing?

The next day, Mayor Bourgeois publically addressed the city, the four miraculous holders standing stoically behind him, and Mr. and Mrs. Agreste at his side. A large gathering of Parisians stood before them, just behind the cameras live broadcasting the speech. The mayor denounced Germain as a corrupt former employee of the mayoral office who had delusions of holding a higher office and resorted to kidnapping and other crimes to do so. He didn't explain why it was Adela who had been kidnapped to achieve this, but he made a vague reference to her as a close family friend and let people assume it was to manipulate him or Gabriel as a prominent member of society. He then made a brief apology on the behalf of his estranged brother, but ensured the citizens of Paris that while Germain had not been captured, his accomplice Penelope Valois had, and his personal connection to the criminal would in no way hinder the ongoing investigation and manhunt.

He went on, but Marinette was distracted by scanning the crowd. She felt eyes on her. It may seem a strange thing to say, all of Paris was probably watching her right now, but she felt something...menacing. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but the feeling that this wasn't over still hadn't left her from the day before. Just as the mayor was concluding his speech, her eyes spotted him. Watching from the peripheral of the crowd, Germain stood in a dark fleece and hat. She met his eyes for a few moments, and he sneered at her.

She turned to get Chat's attention, but by the time she looked back, Germain was gone, leaving her with an even deeper feeling of unease. Chat looked at her worriedly, but she waved him off and mouthed 'later', her eyes continuing to scan the crowd.

After the speech was over and she shook the appropriate hands and spoke to a few reporters she gathered her team, the Agrestes and the Mayor.

"I saw him," she announced bluntly, and no one questioned her. They had all been paranoid the last two days, so she wouldn't fault them if they didn't believe her, but no one challenged her. They knew he wouldn't stay hidden for long. One more thing had been taken from him, and he was no doubt tired of losing.

"Where?" Volpina demanded and Ladybug pointed it out for her. Volpina's eyes immediately turned on the television cameras that were still set up, analyzing the angles. She zeroed in on one and stalked over to it.

"Where's your footage?" She asked, not unkindly, but with an obvious urgency. The camera technician pulled out his laptop and played back his crowd capture shots.

"There!" Volpina shouted, and the tech froze the image. "Zoom in there, if you can."

"If I can," the tech muttered under his breath and gave her a perfect zoom and resolution of Germain's face. Volpina took over the computer and sent the image to the LadyBlog comment email, giving the guy a vague explanation of "Shell know what to do with it."

Thanking him, she rejoined the others and showed them the image.

"It's definitely him," Gabriel affirmed, looking nervously to Adela, assuming he was planning something again.

"Play that back," Adela requested, and Volpina cued up the video. It had been pointed over the crowd for the entirety of the thirty minute speech, so she set it a four times the pace. Germain was there from about minute ten to twenty-five. Adela looked up after it was over and to Ladybug.

"He's staring at you."

"I hoped I was imagining that," Marinette replied, and Chat took a step closer to her.

"He blames us for ruining his plan," Nino cut in from her left. "He blames us, so he'll take it out on Ladybug, because she's our leader."

Leave it to Nino to state the blunt truth. He was right. When it was just her and Chat, they'd had a more or less equal partnership. People always gravitated more to her, but that didn't affect the dynamics between the two of them when they were fighting. Now, it was four of them-five if Chloé ever decided to truly join up-and as much as she hated to admit it, she had become a sort of undecided leader. It just hadn't been voiced until now.

"He won't touch you." Chat grabbed her hand. They had tried to keep their relationship private when they were transformed, but she needed to feel him next to her just as much as he did right now.

"What do we do?" Adrien addressed his father and the Mayor, but they both looked uncomfortable.

"There's still a search for him, so all we can do is...wait." The mayor said apologetically, and Ladybug sighed.

She knew it wasn't over.