Just as she promised, Alya walked into the park about half an hour after Chat left her house. She loitered around the entrance to the park, waiting for him to make an appearance. When she wasn't looking, Chat slipped down from the fence and strolled out from between the trees. Alya saw him and waved slightly too frantically, clearly trying to contain her excitement at helping the famous Chat Noir at his personal request.
Chat neared Alya. "Good evening, Madam Blogger." He gestured to a bench between them. "After you."
Alya graciously accepted his offer of sitting first, and Chat joined her. He leant against the bench angled towards Alya, trying not to seem too relaxed or too tense at the same time. She angled herself slightly towards Chat too and met his eyes, as though they were two people who already knew each other, but not that much. Well, there was some merit to that.
"Thank you for joining me tonight, Madam," Chat said.
"It's no problem. I'm more than willing to help you out." Alya glanced down at her phone in her hands before meeting Chat's eyes again. "You're sure you don't want anyone else to know? My followers would love to hear about this."
"I'm a-fur-raid not," Chat said, earning a set of rolled eyes from Alya. "I don't want to make the situation about me and Ladybug any worse."
"Fine. But after this thing blows over, I get a statement from you about what happened." Alya stuck her finger in Chat's face. He jumped at her ferocity. "Got it, cat? People want to know what's going on with their heroes, and they look to me for information."
Chat held up his hands in surrender. Alya may be bold and determined, but he knew from school that she kept to her word. "Alright, Madam, no need to get your whiskers up. After things get sorted out, I'll make sure you know what happened."
"Good." Alya leaned back, satisfied with Chat's promise. "Alright, Chat Noir, what is it you wanted help with?"
"I need to know the last time anyone saw Ladybug," Chat said. "I've been trying to find her since this afternoon, and she's not anywhere I can find." He pulled his baton from behind his back and looked at where its screen was hidden. "I tried contacting her, but she didn't answer. And no, she hasn't transformed back to her everyday self. I would know if she did." Chat didn't mention that he only knew because he even had the option to contact Ladybug. His baton wouldn't give him the chance to if Ladybug was in her civilian form. Alya didn't need to know everything.
"Okay," Alya said, opening something on her phone. "There's a place on my blog where people can discuss reporting sightings of you and Ladybug, so hopefully it will help." She paused, then looked at Chat. "You aren't surprised about this discussion."
Inwardly, Chat laughed to himself. He and Ladybug had spent enough time talking about all of Alya's exploits and if they should do something. As Adrien, he regularly checked it to see if he could learn anything new about his masked love. And at school, she never shut up about it, it seemed. Of course he knew about it. Chat Noir knew a lot more about Alya and her blog than she appeared to suspect. "Ladybug and I both know about it. And I know that no one on it has seen Ladybug for a few hours. I already checked every location. She's not near any of them. That part of your blog's not going to help. But I know that she's been looking for me. Ladybug might be following the akuma in the hopes that I'll show up. So what I need to know is if you've heard of any sightings of the Well Wisher. That's not public on your blog. Purr-haps Ladybug is there?" If not, I might at least be able to figure out how to break Ladybug from the akuma's spell.
"No, of course it's not there. You and Ladybug do a lot more than just fight people with superpowers. And this is a blog dedicated to Ladybug, not everything the two of you do. But you're in luck. I might have something," Alya said. She scrolled through her phone. "Sometimes people email me with things they think might be interesting. Most of it's junk, but I keep it anyway in case I need it later….here. This was taken about an hour and a half ago."
Alya held up her phone to Chat. The screen held a blurry picture of a figure in green landing on a rooftop. Despite the grainy quality, Chat had no doubt that it was the Well Wisher. He recognized the building too. It held a bakery right next to his school, and the home of Alya's best friend, Marinette. It was only a few minutes away by rooftop, and a place he hadn't looked yet. "Purr-fect," he said. "That's just the lead I was looking for."
Chat stood up and stretched his arms above his head. "Well, Madam, thank you for your help tonight. I must be off to look for my Lady." He offered a hand to Alya, who took it with an amused smile on her face. Once she was standing, he turned to leave.
"Wait, Chat Noir!" Alya wasn't done with him.
"Yes, Madam Blogger?"
"Something's…wrong with Ladybug," she said. It wasn't a question. "That's why she kissed you earlier today. The akuma affected her somehow." The bemused surety that always seemed to be on Alya's face was gone. Instead, it was replaced with concern, and maybe a little bit of fear too. No one likes seeing their hero fall. "Will she be okay? This hasn't happened to her before."
Chat Noir paused before answering, half turned towards Alya so that only his profile showed. He smiled, showing more confidence than he felt, hoping the worry was hidden. "This is Ladybug we're talking about. She'll be okay."
Before Alya could respond, Chat raced into the darkness and disappeared amongst the trees.
She'll be okay.
I hope.