When You Live Forever...
Sidestepping the truth is a given
"Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies."
-Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Caroline
Adrian
"Adrian! Dude!"
Alya weaved through the students in the hallways. I stopped, unconsciously ducking around two girls who held up paper and pens for him to sign stuff with. "Hey Alya." I paused. "Something wrong?"
Alya giggled. "Nope! It's great! Look!" And she held up a text book, beaming.
I was confused. "What's so special?"
"I got this from Ladybug!!" She clutched it close. My heart skipped a beat. "She dropped it a few minutes ago. Look at this! It's the same as ours!" She squealed. "Ladybug goes to our school!"
This was bad. "Wow, that's almost impossibly unlikely. There has to be another reason." I tried to act intrigued and not slightly terrified. I mean, this wouldn't be the first time one of my friends found out my secret. It happened a few hundred years ago. Funny story, that was, actually.
But with Gabe nearby, already knowing she might be close to us, I didn't want her to be in harms way. True, telling her would be a heads up, but she's the kind to dive into trouble.
"It's the most likely reason." Alya said. "I already put this on the LC blog. People are freaking out!"
I was really starting to panic now. "The only ones who truly know is Ladybug and Chat Noir. You got to ask them!"
Alya deflated. "I haven't been able to get an interview with either of them yet…"
I regret what I said next. "I can help!"
She perked up. "You can?"
"You can?"
Marinette walked up, watching me with suspicion. Her face had an easy dig yourself out of this mess look to it.
"Uh, Yeah." Just diggin the hole deeper. "I know Chat Noir, I can get you an interview!"
Marinette face palmed behind Alya's view sight. Alya, though, almost squealed. "Really, you can? With both?"
"Eh…" I did a so ' so gesture. "Probably only one, sorry. I don't know about Ladybug, but Chat Noir will be happy to say something."
I had finally made a plan in my mind. Mari frowned slightly. "Chat Noir is definitely the diva of the duo."
I twitched, stopping myself from retorting. Mari smirked slightly. "You can asked him about that Peice of text they just added into the Egyptian museum." She added.
Just a few days ago, some tome raiders were caught, there stolen stuff taken into government custody. In there, they found a picture of two beings that looked almost identical to Mari and I. The picture had us in Egyptian cloth with linin covering our eyes, but it was close enough to Ladybug and Chat Noir that the French museum actually bought it.
Alya was bouncing by this point. "Isn't it awesome? Im confused on why Ladybug might have this book, because the picture makes historians think that they're way older then humanly possible. I'm doing a blog on it later today, actually. Think you can get him to show up that quickly?"
I had no modeling today. Mari did have an outfit to do, but she's gone in without me before. "Consider it done."
Alya slipped away, hugging the book close to her. Marinette went to my side. "You told her you knew Chat?"
I shrugged, still slightly panicked. "What could I do? We have to get your textbook back! After you've finished modeling, you can transform and get the textbook back while she's busy interviewing me. why did you say something about the tablet?"
"Everyone will want to know soon enough." She said after a moment.
"I might have to tell them about our age…" I said softly. I didn't know how I felt about that. I was hopeing that after Gabe was gone, we could tell everyone.
Mari nodded, but still frowned. "I hope she doesn't tell anyone about the interview. Word travels fast, and I don't want Gabe creating another akuma because he knows you'll be out."
"I'll be fine Mari." I draped an arm around her. "I can take an akuma."
"But you can't get rid of it by yourself." Mari retorted, before sighing. "Just be careful, kitty."
I grinned. "When am I not?"
"All the time."
OmOmO
I thought when I would go to the museum, not to many people would be there, and I could get the interview done and leave.
Apparently, Alya got a tweet out that she would be interviewing me about the sign in the museum. The curator was waiting to greet me, almost as giddy as Alya was, and there was security outside the doors, stopping most people but staff and historians.
I saw it all from a rooftop a few buildings away. A crowd of people stood outside, probably waiting for me. The thought made me smile, a happiness I don't feel often filling me.
It was hard for me to really be happy most of the times. It started thousands of years back, when I first gained my 'Seeing' power. For some reason, every fifty or so years, I go to sleep for a few days at a time. I don't know how, or why, but when I'm asleep, I can see inside Gabe's amulet, where he's trapped all the other immortals' souls. I can see the souls trapped inside, sometimes talk to them.
Over the years, they've slowly turned insane.
They've been broken.
But just like how Mari can tell that an Immortal has died, I can see where their souls go afterwards. But seeing how bad they've all become… well, it makes it hard to have a positive attitude.
Especially because I know Gabe wants us to join them.
THe only time I'm really happy now is when I have Mari by my side.
But seeing the crowd below me, cheering and excited to see me, knowing that I helped and save these people on different occasions, makes me so inexplicably happy that I'm now grinning like a doofus.
I run across the rooftops, making a giant leap until I'm on top of the museum. People look up and start pointing, chatter turning to cheer.
It's these moments that make me not give up.
I jump off the building, landing on a crouch. A security man moves in front of me, stopping reporters from jumping me. I smirk and wave at them, tuning out questions they throw at me.
"Will Ladybug be joining you today!?"
I don't know why I didn't tune that question out, but I turned to the woman who said it, giving her a wider smile before moving towards the curator.
"Chat Noir." He said pleasantly, shaking my head. "Thank you so much for coming and depicting tablet for us. I must ask, how do you understand the language? Even the historians are stumped."
I wasn't sure if I wanted them to know that we were basically immortal yet. I didn't know if I wanted them to know we lived in Egypt when the tablet was made. So I just smiled and said. "You'll see after I've translated it."
"Chat Noir! How is it possible that there is a thousands of years old picture of you?"
I gave the reporter a slick face, before following the curator in.
As we walk to where it was, I thought about it for a moment. The immortals and I were waaaay older then 3 thousand. We don't know how old we are, since a calendar wasn't around for half of our lives. When we finally got a decent calendar, we got up to five thousand years old… but then the calendar switch. Two of those years turned into only one season and it was to hard to calculate, so we just started over at 16. It didn't matter much to us, sense we were running for our lives.
Alya was looking at the tablet when I got there. She turned, jumping up to greet me. Her phone was hooked to her body so that she had both hands empty. From what I could tell, she was already live-streaming, probably sharing her own thoughts while waiting for me.
"Chat Noir! Thank you so much for doing this!" She giggled, seriously giddy. I knew that she liked Ladybug more then me, but I was still happy with the joy she got from seeing me, or, Chat.
"No problem, Alya." I said. I was wondering if I should throw a cat pun in there, somewhere. I decided against it. "Ladybug and I were going to help you guys out with this tablet anyway."
The curator was recording this as well, looking up to the cameras in the room, as if magically making them work. Alya spoke. "Both of you? You speak outside of costume?"
I still didn't know if I wanted to tell them. Tell them that we were older then the calendar itself. I didn't know how Mari felt about it.
She would support me either way, I thought.
Smiling, I said, "we've known each other for many years, Alya."
I could hear Alya whisper, 'LadyNoir' under her breath, but I didn't comment. "Chat, is it true that this is you and Ladybug depicted in this tablet?"
I walked over to it, reading it silently to myself. It was a tombstone, made for…
My breath caught in my throat, and suddenly, my eyes turned watery.
It was a tombstone for Jani. The immortal with a bear Kwami.
"Yes." My voice cracked slightly. "It's us in the picture."
Alya must of noticed how my posture changed. "Chat… are you okay?"
I took a breath, schooling my features. "I'm fine. Let's continue with the questions." I tried for a smirk.
Alya didn't speak, but the curator did. "From the herioglyphs we were able to translate, we were able to make up a sentence, 'the bear shall have a beautiful afterlife.' What is the bear?"
I bit my lip, stopping myself from sniffling. I scratched the back of my neck, laughing anxiously. "Ah, I wish Ladybug was here to help me explain this…" I paused. "This tablet is a tombstone."
The room seemed to turn darker. The atmosphere changed. The curator stuttered. "Wh-"
"As to not disrespect who it was made for, I will not tell you their name on camera. You can ask me later." I told him. I turned to Alya. "Sorry for dropping that out of nowhere. I'm surprised that this was even found. I haven't seen it in a long time…"
"Were you there when this picture was made?" The curator asked.
I shook my head. "No, Ladybug and I were there before it was made, and we came back afterwards, but not during the process."
Alya shook her head slightly, gettin out of her state. "Chat… Just how old are you?"
I smirked. "I lost count thousands of years ago."
Silence, before Alya's smile widened impressively wide. "Have you ever met a Fred before?"
I planted a hand on my hip, still smirking slightly. "Oh yeah, I know a Fred. A close friend of mine, actually. I wonder where he is now…"
Alya's eyes sparkled at the thought that her family legend was more than just a legend. She opened her mouth to speak more-
And suddenly, a mummy dressed up as a god stomped into the room. It's eyes locked on the tablet, and they narrowed. "I will bring my beloved back to life!"
And he charged.
