Once she gave Tikki a pastry from the basket, she pulled her phone out with her free hand and scrolled down the Kagami's contact. At first, she hesitated to call Kagami. Why? Well maybe the other girl was busy. After all, what she observed from hanging out with Kagami and Adrien, their parents held them up to high standards. Any crack in their perfection wasn't tolerated.
She clicked on the contact and held her phone against her ear. Marinette only had to wait a few moments for the other girl to pick up the line. "Hey, Kagami," she began. "Where are you?"
"In the Tillery Garden." Kagami had always been an honest and blunt person. She never once faltered on getting what she wanted, yet she also cared deeply for her friends. It was true that the both of them had a bumpy introduction, yet through it all, they had made up and became great friends.
"Perfect! I'll be over in a moment."
"Actually, right now isn't a good time."
"I'll always be there for you, Kagami!" Marinette had practically ran towards the location Kagami had said to her earlier in the call. There was no time to lose. She needed to get them back together.
Getting Kagami and Adrien back together wasn't the only thing that circled her mind. It was their way of bonding that still captured her mind. When she was present, they shared a laugh and even an ice cream. The two of them had so much in common that it made her head spin on how perfect they were for each other.
Marinette was planning on hopping on Kagami's back, but she decided against it. Instead, while Kagami's back was turned to her, she called out to her, "Kagami!" Any normal person would have questioned why Marinette wasn't panting. What they didn't know about her was that she was a superhero. She got her daily workout from patrols and fighting bad guys.
As she caught Kagami's attention, she also noticed Kagami's mother, Tomoe who was sitting on a bench. She was obviously also there to keep tabs on her daughter and her fencing abilities. The bluenette respectfully walked up to the older woman with the basket of pastries still in one arm. "Would you like a brioche, Mrs. Tsurugi?" she smiled gently.
"Mother, you remember Marinette?" Kagami had turned to the both of them. The girl seemed actually surprised that the girl who was offering her own mother pastries wasn't at all being disrespectful.
Like an idiot, Marinette waved. She completely forgot the woman was blind.
Tomoe had her head straightened as she spoke when Kagami asked her that question, "Yes, I distinctly remember your very unique friend."
"Is it alright if I borrow your daughter for an hour?"
"Kagami is in the middle of training herself, but I suppose. Only for an hour."
Marinette silently cheered. She then gently placed the basket of pastries on the woman's lap and gave a smile to Kagami. The bluenette gently pulled Kagami to go with her, to which she did, much to her surprise. She glanced back at the old woman on the bench who picked up one of the pastries from the basket. A brioche that had a fresh fruit filling. One of her dad's new recipes. She could have sworn she heard a happy 'hmm' from that woman.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your training session," Marinette began as soon as the two were far away from Tomoe. She stopped at the seine. "From a friend of mine, I heard you and Adrien broke up. But today's the day I get you two back together."
"I don't want to get back together with Adrien. I was the one who decided to break up."
"What? Why?"
"He let me down," she replied simply.
"What do you mean he let you down?"
Kagami was quiet for a moment. Normally, she didn't let her emotions run free, but it really hurt that Adrien couldn't tell her the truth. "You think of him as perfect. Well, he's not. On our dates, he would disappear when an akuma or amok ran rampant through. His excuses started to get old. He always made it seem his mind was elsewhere when I tried to kiss him or hold his hand."
"That doesn't sound like Adrien at all."
"I know." Kagami placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "You have more of a better chance than I do. He's free now. Why don't you date him?"
"But Kagami. You and Adrien are made for each other. Andre the ice cream man said it himself."
"Just because we have a lot in common doesn't mean we can make it work when one partner doesn't trust the other. Adrien didn't trust me with whatever he was hiding and it hurt me. I was the one who broke up with him. He has to accept it. Look, you're a good friend in all, but I don't want to be with him until he knows what he did wrong."
"I'm sure I can get him to understand."
"That's not the point." the other bluenette crossed her arms over her chest.
Marinette shook her head and dragged Kagami along with her. "I don't know how far along Adrien is with his big new ad campaign, but do you have any idea how romantic the pool is? It's totally romantic and enough for you two to make up!"
Kagami placed a hand in front of her. "I don't really want to. It seems you have his schedule memorized."
"Yeeah," Marinette admitted. She had stopped in her tracks as she scratched the back of her head awkwardly. A part of her still had a crush on Adrien, but her mind kept going to what if? What if this was all just a big obsession because he was nice to her on his first day of school? Because he actually stood his ground against Chloe?
"Why don't you go and be with him?" she had asked again.
The designer looked down at her shoes. "I don't really want to, to be honest."
That came as a shock to Kagami who only had the look of surprise with her eyes. "It's that boy with blue hair, isn't it?"
Marinette nodded.
"I wish you best of luck, Marinette."
"Thank you, but this isn't about me. I came here to comfort you and try to fix this."
"Fixing that will require Adrien and I to do it alone. I tried before I broke up with him. In the future, I may try again."
Marinette smiled.
Kagami was such a strong and confident girl that Marinette wished to be. Yeah, she was like that as Ladybug, but as Marinette? She was nothing like that. Her friendship with Luka and him knowing who she really was made her self-reflect.
There was something the bluenette with pigtails didn't see since she wasn't paying attention to anything. Simply, she was staring at the ground.
"Duck!" Kagami cried out as a pigeon swooped down on both girls. This was followed by several more to which both of them ducked and ran for cover.
This must be another attack from Shadowmoth, Marinette thought to herself. "Go hide, Kagami. I'll distract these pigeons."
"What? I can't just leave you to fend for yourself."
"Just go!" the bluenette with pigtails watched as Kagami ran for cover. She ran from them and did her best to avoid them as she saw that as soon as the pigeons landed on a random civilian, they'd turn into pigeons themselves. She made a sharp turn. Thankfully, she managed to avoid the raging pigeons. The bluenette opened her bag and let Tikki free. "Oh Tikki...," she muttered softly. "If I stayed with Luka longer, I could have prevented this..."
"Don't blame yourself. Let's have a talk about this after the fight. Remember, you have Luka too. You're not alone anymore."
A sad smile graced her lips. "Tikki, spots on!" A pink flash was gone in a blink of an eye. She wasn't Marinette anymore. She was Ladybug and Ladybug took action and threw her yo-yo to a rooftop out of the pigeons' sight and took off.
~҉҉~҉҉~҉҉{҉҉ ҉҉}҉҉~҉҉~҉҉~҉҉
Congratulations, people. A part three will be made for this. I totally lied to myself when I said this would be two parts.
