Before we get to Tobago, there is someone we need to meet," Ember said cryptically.
Kaalki's portal brought them to Maracas Bay not far from Port of Spain. The protected bay sat on a strip of golden sand, with a mountainous rainforest standing guard nearby. The tall palm trees framed the setting, as if they had stepped into a postcard for paradise.
Unlike the more relaxed and relatively secluded beach, this one was vibrant, and lively.
"Might be best not to transform just yet," Ember advised. "Stay focused," he gently scolded Chat Noir, who was twisting his head this way and that. "Get freshened up and refuel, then meet back up here for instructions from our guide. Tiki and Plagg will come with me to get ready for the next stage."
"But what if they need us?" Tiki piped up worriedly.
"Why don't we get a snack break and a chance to lie on the beach!" protested Plagg.
"You were doing plenty of that all night," scolded Tiki back at Plagg, who just crossed his arms.
"Your weilders will be fine, we'll be right nearby if they call on you anyway," Ember assured Tiki, ignoring Plagg's pout. "Now off you go you two," Ember instructed Adrien and Marinette. "After you are ready, we'll meet back here!"
Marinette and Adrien didn't have to be told twice. They hadn't showered or eaten since they left home back in Paris! The only debate was what to do first.
"Can't we just eat and shower at the same time?!" Adrien sighed.
Marinette giggled, "Not so sure that would work out the best."
"Yeah," Adrien admitted, "I guess not. Although I know of a way we could save time!"
"Adrien Agreste! If you suggest we share a shower to save water..." Marinette raised an eyebrow at him.
"Actually, I just thought I'd get us both food, while you showered first...but if you want.." Adrien couldn't help the Chat-fuelled lopsided grin thrown her way.
"Ahh..um...nope...naw...your idea is good...Yep.." Marinette's face glowed red, and she ducked into the shower, slamming the brightly painted wood door behind her.
"Anything you're in the mood for?" Adrien called behind her.
"Yea, anything...Whatever you want," she mumbled behind the door.
"Hmm, anything huh?!" he emphasized with a teasing lift in his voice.
Marinette couldn't even...She was relieved when his chuckling drifted off in the direction of the food stands. She chirped as the cold water hit her when the facet sprang to life. Although a bit of a shock, she figured a cold shower might be the only thing to extinguish the fire that boy always seemed to ignite.
She had become nearly immune to Chat's innuendo...but to hear it fall off Adrien's lips...well there would just have to be some way to turn the tide on that boy to get a blush out of him for once!
While sweet Marinette plotted ways to make her kitten's jaw drop, Adrien was drooling over the collection of well-stocked food stands and venders.
Food! The delicious aroma of fresh fish and bake mixed with the fresh salty air! Adrien decided that he definitely must have somehow spent all nine lives and was in heaven. The crashing waves were bombarding breakers enthusiastically, slapping against unsuspecting tourists. The frothing foam it riled up was dizzying to watch. It certainly brought back a reminder about the raw power the sea held.
Adrien breathed in deeply, and glanced back at the salty surf, while the wind wiped against the sturdy columns of palm trees staggered throughout the beach. He was so lost in thought he nearly missed the enticing array of food passed across to him by a friendly cook across the counter. Adrien eagerly balanced the food with the large cups of mango juice, and thanked him graciously. Then back he weaved to return to his lady.
But when he saw her he nearly dropped everything, to the point that he wobbled and chilly, sticky orange juice spilled over his hands.
With some rips, folds and ties Marinette had cropped her pink capris into cute little shorts that showed off her toned legs perfectly and hugged the curve of her hips. Her floral tattooed white t-shirt she had tied into a knot to one side, highlighting her abs (that Adrien's eyes kept gravitating towards). She was still "towel drying" her dark glossy hair with her black shirt, when she saw Adrien and tossed it to one side.
"Found what you were looking for?" Marinette smiled sweetly, absolutely basking in the dopey way Adrien's eye glazed over at the sight of her.
"Um hmm," was all Adrien could manage, leaning against lounge chair for support. The chair however folded to the pressure, and Adrien was pitched to one side. He just bearly caught himself in time to save their sandwiches from being filled with literal sand! He steadied their food and drinks on the chair, pulling himself up from the sand.
"Careful," Marinette gave him a little thryumpent smile, and helped him back up.
"You are just...like...wow!" Adrien's eyes widened. "How is a guy supposed to walk straight when you are looking like that?!"
"Well we can't very well blend in on a beach covered head to toe can we?" she teased, pulling at the corner of his white jacket, and lifting herself up to her tip toes to surprise him with a swift peak on the lips.
"Well, I better follow suit!" Adrien shrugged with a smile, and in one motion pulled both his jacket and black tshirt over his head, tossing them both over the back of the chair.
Marinette's plan to tease her Kitty had backfired in the best way possible, and once again her cheeks burst into shades of crimson. There was Adrien Agreste standing in front of her like one of her dog-eared swimsuit ads of him come to life! The ridges of each well shaped muscle of his chest tempted her to just run her finger across them, but not trusting her own judgement on anything at the moment she just stood gawking like a statue. She absolutely was not about to fantasize about the band of his briefs poking just above the waist of his jeans. Absolutely not...at this moment...no...she had to say or do something to slow her racing heart. Adrien tilted his head to one side watching her questionably, which made a fringe of his hair fall over his eye making him look even more irresistible.
"You okay Bugaboo?" He asked all to innocently.
"Water!" Marinette burst out, practically shouting.
Adrien's eyebrow quirked up in confusion, "uh wat..?!"
"Water in a shower! You in the shower! You...in..." Marinette tried to piece works without hope of regain coherence, and she swung the shower door open, and shoved Adrien in. But he was not about to let her escape so quickly, and snagged her hand before she retreated.
"You are just the cutest when you get all worked up," he smiled kissing the back of her hand, and giving her a wink.
"And you love to get me all flustered!" Marinette smiled back at him despite his cocky smirk.
"I certainly do!" he grinned, kissing her hand again.
"Go have your shower," she giggled, "before I eat all your food!"
That seemed to be enough of a threat that Adrien ducked into the shower, allowing Marinette to collect herself and tuck into the tasty food.
Adrien found her sipping her mango juice looking out toward the water, a picture of pure relaxation. Although his first thought was to slip into the chair beside her and soak in the moment, Plagg must have been rubbing off on him, because his second thought was how much he wanted to sneak up behind that cute girl and pounce on her.
His indecision betrayed him though, and Marinette heard him and looked over the back of the chair at him, smiling radiantly. "Enjoy your shower?" she asked cheerfully, and then held out a package of food toward him enthusiastically, "you've got to try this!"
He trotted over to her side and accepted his portion of the food hungrily. She watched with amusement as Adrien devoured his whole fish and bake meal, making satisfying mumbling and moaning sounds.
"Wha?" he glanced up at her, suddenly self consciously. "Sorry, I guess I was hungrier than I thought."
"It's okay," Marinette smiled handing him his mango juice. "In my house if we are not enthusiastic about our food Papa thinks there is something wrong. Then there is my uncle; he always said a guilty man couldn't slurp soup!"
Adrien burst out laughing, "I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sounds a lot different from how things were at my house!"
Marinette watched him lick the last bit of sauce off his finger, and then she offered to go grab some more.
"No, no, you really don't have to, I'm fine!" Adrien tried to protest, but Marinette got up anyway.
"You certainly are fine, but you will not go hungry on my watch again!" Marinette declared firmly.
"The only thing I'm starved for is attention," Adrien smiled at the very Ladybug-like Marinette, trying to pull her back on the lounge chair.
"Well, I can't have that either," Marinette leaned in close to him, tilting his chin up, and dipping down to plant a kiss on his lips. Once he was effectively left swooning from her kiss, she pranced away to retrieve more snacks.
"Mari!" he whined after her weakly.
"I'll be back in a minute," she sang over her shoulder, and couldn't help skipping the rest of the way.
Adrien sighed deeply, throwing his arms above his head, and pulling them behind his neck. He never thought Ladybug would drive him even more crazy in love once they got together. He closed his eyes happily, enjoying a particularly pleasant sunbeam.
Marinette must not have been gone long, but that is exactly the way he was still stretched out when she returned with the food.
"Even without Plagg you're really just such a cat," he heard Marinette's voice observe.
"Speaking of that cat...Tiki and Plagg will probably be looking for us soon, so we better enjoy our time alone!" Adrien
pulled her down next to him. "I just keep worrying that I'm going to wake up and find that all this was just a dream," Adrien said furrowing his brow, and pulling Marinette in closer. She snuggled in comfortably to his shoulder, and handed him some greasy white paper packages that smelled amazing.
"Here, smell that! That is no dream, just pure delicious reality," Marinette reassured him, "and..." she added, "I'm here to stay too."
Suitably comforted, Adrien unwrapped the food. While he savoured his doubles with curry channa, Marinette also surprised him with a fresh passion fruit (his favourite). Then Marinette arranged the rest of the food she had purchased (Along with some fried kurma dripping with ginger sugar syrup for Tiki and sharp cheese paste sandwiches in layers of pink, green, and yellow for Plagg) into her bag.
"I think we'll have enough this time for a couple recharges for the kwamis, as long as Plagg doesn't get to it all right away," Marinette surveyed her bag.
There would simply never be enough time to enjoy the breathtaking views of lush peninsulas jetting out into the sea together. All too soon both of them knew it was time to meet back up with their kwamis. When they somewhat reluctantly found their way back to them, they found their three with a flamingo kwami that was talking animatedly.
"And here they are! Oh they're still so young! This task won't be hard at all..." the flamingo motioned to them with his rose pink wings.
"What'd you bring me?" Plagg zoomed up to Adrien.
"Here Plagg, I hope these are okay," Marinette handed him one of the cheese sandwiches.
Apparently Plagg thought they were pretty good, since he scarfed it down even faster than Adrien had eaten his food. Tiki rolled her eyes at him, and appreciatively savoured her kurma cookies.
The flamingo kwami was still prattling on, apparently undaunted about whether anyone was actually listening or not. "the older ones," he continued, "are always more stuck in their ways...too busy to see what's right in front of them. On the other hand youth these days get pretty distracted by...well...everything!" the flamingo added, looking at them curiously.
"So it's a focus task..like consideration! I've got the focus of a telescope!" Adrien declared, crossing his arms confidently.
"maybe focused on looking at Ladybug...you've always got stars in your eyes around her," Ember said under his breath with a smirk.
"Oh ho! You've got ol Ember telln' jokes! You must really be some thin' to loosin up ol fire-britches here!" the flamingo laughed, slapping a less than impressed Phoenix jovially on the back.
"And yes young man, the task involves concentration, but more acute that that. You must be," the flamingo closed his eyes, standing on one leg, and spread his wings as if practicing a meditative yoga pose.
"Must be what?" Marinette asked puzzled.
"Be in the moment," the flamingo chuckled. "Sounds easy doesn't it?! But you wouldn't believe how many have failed!"
"I live in the moment!" Adrien declared confidently.
"I live in the moment," Plagg corrected, "You've got your head in the clouds about girls (at this Adrien made a "I don't know what he's talking about motion to Marinette) or get caught up retracing the past!"
"What about me? I can be in the moment can't I? I'll be able to do it right?" Marinette turned to Tiki for confirmation.
"Of course you can," Tiki encouraged supportively, but then added, "it'll just take a little work."
"What do you mean?" Marinette sputtered, "I've already thought of three different meditation strategies that have got to work...or I close my eyes to block out anything...will the task take place inside or outside?...how many potential distractions are we talking here..?" Marinette rallied off a series of inquiries.
"Yep, cool as a cucumber this one, not rushing ahead a bit," Plagg mumbled sarcastically.
Tiki shot him a dirty look, and patted Marinette's cheek. "Don't worry Marinette! It is often a asset for a Ladybug to be strategic planners like you, who think ahead...but other times a Ladybug needs to zone in to little details immediately around them. Then you will react instinctively, rather than through a set of preplanned steps. Observe the chaos, but don't get swept up in it. Then bring your circle in closer and closer, til there is only what is important."
The flamingo nodded at Tiki's advice, "Balance yourself carefully. Be in the moment," he confirmed. "...And that moment is now! Come my friends, let's get to it. Come along Kalaaki, off to Tobago you go!"
They both called on their transformations. Out they stepped through the portal! The new trial to conquer! Jumping to Tobago, took no time at all, but it had a feeling all its own. No sooner than Marinette had channeled the horse kwami's power of teleportation, she and Chat Noir were each stepping out onto a narrow pole sticking out of a band of green water. They were in the Nariva swamp on the mouth of the Ortoire River. Chat Noir rolled his eyes, because right away he saw the flamingos influence in their next trial. Each pole was only wide enough for one foot, forcing them to stand on one leg, like a flamingo!
"I bet that pink feather duster thinks he's pretty funny, making us stand perched up here! This is ridiculous!" Chat complained, with a wobble on his narrow pole.
"Have you been hanging around Chloe more than usual? Don't you mean this is "utterly ridiculous!" Ladybug grinned.
"Yes, yes, very funny," Chat Noir brushed off her teasing. "It's fine, I was just hoping for some more action! Something to battle! A game to win! Not just stand around with some stick!"
Ladybug glanced down at Chat's baton, and then back up to him without saying a word.
"You know what I mean," Chat Noir huffed, sticking his baton on his lower back.
They looked around taking in their surroundings.
They were surrounded by water, but they were not on a beach and this wasn't the ocean. The wetland they perched on was a broad and diverse swampland.
The water at first sent out a series of ripples from where they balanced, but other than that most of the water was fairly still.
The sky, which had been wide open light blue, started to gather some light wisps of clouds. The clouds spiralled, and built until they rose into cumulus mounds.
"Hey! That cloud looks like a beak of a flamingo...or maybe a croissant," Chat Noir observed lazily.
"Yeah it kind of does," Ladybug looked over. "But that cloud over there is just like the dessert my Dad always makes me on special occasions. Man, I wonder how they're doing," Ladybug trailed off getting a wave of home sickness pass over her. At the same time the "dessert cloud" turned dark, and knotted into itself.
"Where did that dark cloud come up from?!" Chat Noir asked, glancing up alarmed at the dramatic change in the sky. Then he looked over at Ladybug who was fiddling distractedly with her yoyo string. "Hey Mi'Lady! Don't worry, we'll be back in Paris again soon!"
"Yeah, you're right. We've got to focus on getting this trial done first, and then next stop home!" she brightened.
The water around them became still, and the clouds drifted past, lightening into whispy strands of cotton.
"I like being on the road with you more than going back," Chat Noir looked off into the distance and then glanced hesitantly back at her. "Not like, I've really got a home back there anyway...not like I really ever did."
"Don't think abot it! It will only make you upset. Let's just think about the future!" Ladybug encouraged. "All that doesn't matter any more!"
"Doesn't matter! If it wasnt for me glossing over the blatantly obvious evidence littered through my father's past..." Chat Noir threw up his hands, making himself tremble and weave on his narrow base.
"But we stopped him. It's over now," Ladybug tried to reason.
"It will never be over for me! Cant you see that!" Chat Noir's voice wavered, along with his stance.
The wind churned up the water ground them. The water boiled in a frenzy of froth, as if trying to knock them from their perch.
"Chat I didn't mean..." ladybug, reached out her hand towards him.
"I know you didn't," Chat Noir's responded with a pause in a quieter voice. "It's just I'm still trying to figure out how it happened. How I could have failed you?!"
"Oh Kitty, you didn't fail me! I guess I wanted so badly to prevent you from going through something so painful again, I've been trying to push you through your grief, before you're ready," Ladybug tried to break through to him.
"There are so many moments I could have stopped him...if only I had talked to him before things got so out of control...if I had.."Chat Noir shook his head. "First my mom, then my Dad... I've so alone! All alone!" Chat Noir's voice started to creak on the verge of panic and he ran his hands into his hair.
"I'm here," ladybug said grabbing out to steady Chat Noir's shoulder as he pitched sideways, and regained his balance.
"Mi'Lady I know, it's just that..." Chat Noir looked around frantically at the ominous clouds and water leaping up around them, and he started to wobble again.
"Adrien, I'm here," Ladybug took her other hand and gently cupped the side of his face, speaking in a more determined voice.
Finally Chat Noir stopped and looked into her eyes. His leg did not falter, and his back straightened. Above them the clouds started to dissipate at the center, leaving a beam of sunlight breaking through. As the clutter of clouds dissolved with the winds, the opening widened, until a sunny light blue sky stretched across the sky.
As if summoned a flock of hundreds of Scarlett Ibis birds broke free from the long grass, and spiralled around the two weilders rising into the sky. Nothing broke their gaze though, nothing distracted from this moment between them that fit everything words could not express into a look, a touch...it was a space that neither dwelled in the past or sped forward to the future...they let go and just...were.
I'm here," Chat Noir echoed Ladybug, mirroring her embrace.
A keen sense of awareness burst up from within them. Their skin prickled with sensitivity as a warm breeze blew lightly around them. In-tuned to the sound of their heartbeats the water gently lapped at the base of their posts.
"I never knew before..." Chat Noir said just above a whisper.
"Never knew what?"Ladybug asked.
"What love like ours could feel like," he locked his emerald eyes with her, and a shy smile made her heart feel like it might burst.
"Yeah, me too," she smiled dreamily.
A short distance away Ember smiled affectionately at the pair.Perched up in the mangrove bushes, he did not stir when ripples of a long cylinder body coiled through the hazy waters of Nariva beneath him. The olive green scales, interrupted with black blotches, rose from the surface tapered to a point, with two beady eyes set high on her head.
"Ssshe ssscertainly doesss balancess him out," the green anaconda observed.
"They balance each other," the Phoenix replied.
"Ssshall, we sssummon them to the councsssil then?" the massive constrictor inquired. "After all, it'ssss clear they've passssed the tessst."
"Let's just give them a moment longer," one of the Scarlett ibises implored, lighting on a branch beside Ember.
The three kwami waited a bit longer, before escorting the two young weilders to the council at Pigeon Point.
The powder coral sand sunk into the aqua ocean water. Palm trees stretched themselves out over the water, as if longing to catch the last of the sun. The hummingbird, turtle, flamingo, anaconda, and red ibis were already assembled in the shade of the palms.
"Perfect timing," the red ibis announced. "It is sometimes all that stands between victory and defeat or joy an despair.
Seizing the moment," the Hummingbird buzzed.
"Patience," the turtle nodded.
"Being present," the flamingo smiled.
"It is high time that the world has defenders that value these," the turtle declared.
The red ibis spun its wings in a circle in front of himself. Ladybug presented the three clear stones, which floated in line, one after the other. The ibis sliced his wings out to the side, using his power to force the stones to stretch into thin transparent discs. Once they aligned together the sun's raze was magnified and shone out a hot beam at Ladybug and Chat Noir. The radiation surrounded them, but did not harm them. They were surrounded by the power, but they stood together unsinged. Like a whip the anaconda slapped her tail against the shore, and like a snap the weilders were alone at pigeon point with only their guide's flame left.
"Timing is everything," Ember sighed
wistfully to himself.
"I think it's time to get back," Ladybug looked over to Chat Noir, but he was looking distractedly out across the water. "Chat?" she said softly.
"It is time," Chat Noir murmured.
"Kitty?" Ladybug asked, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Time for what?"
"I've been putting it off way too long already," Chat Noir turned back to her with his jaw set in determination, and electric green eyes. "I need to confront him!"
"Who?" Ladybug breathed, sensing his intensity.
Chat Noir looked off into the distance again, before responding, "my father."
--
Thank you so very much to those leaving such encouraging reviews! They mean so much to me and inspire me to keep going:)
I've been sick and couldn't write for a while, but now I'm back with more to come on the way! I hope you are all enjoying this passport around the world with our favourite heroes! With worldwide travel at a standstill for the most part this has certainly been more of an escape than I ever expected! I'll be dropping the father and son "Chat" by the weekend hopefully! Favourite or follow so you don't miss major moments to come!