The Missing Purrincess

Chapter 5: What's with the boxes?

What she definitely did NOT remember, is Adrien being anywhere near the scene in her scattered memories.

---Adrien's POV---

The first thought that went through my mind was panic. Not because Marinette had a Miraculous holder, but because Nino knew what it was. Alya looked like she had been slapped in the face. I stepped closer to look.

The box was empty. In the larger cardboard box in front of Nino, I saw dozens of identical Miraculous holders stacked neatly. At least one for the majority of the Miraculous I had seen in play if not more.

"Nino, where did you find this?"

Now I was even more confused. Alya knew what it was too? Who were they? Heroes? I went through the list in my head. Queen Bee? Nope, that was Chloe. She made no attempt to hide that. King Monkey? Nah, doesn't act like Nino. Bunnyx was out of the question since I'm pretty sure that was Alix. Ryûko was Kagami. Viperion was Luka. That left only a few choices. Rena Rouge and Carapace being the most obvious.(A/N Please ignore the fact that Adrien is not actually observant enough to figure this out)

It seemed like as soon as I put that together was when Alya noticed her and Nino's mistake. She looked back at me with a nervous smile like she knew what I was thinking. She whispered something to Nino and he dropped the box he was carrying. 

"You're Rena Rouge and Carapace."

Nino and Alya exchanged a quick glance before spitting out excuses.

"What are you talking about man?!"

"I'm Ladybug's biggest fan! Of course I would know what this is!"

"It was a good guess. That's all!"

"What are you accusing us of, being heroes to Paris?"

"I think I saw her giving one to Chloe once dude!"

The both of them were waving their arms around more than Marinette did when talking to me. So a lot. It was funny to be honest. If I wasn't frozen in place, I would have died laughing. Their immediate cover up was enough to get my mind off Marinette for a minute and that was enough. 

"Stop laughing!" Alya cried.

And there it was. The first smile on my face since the incident at school. I was nearly doubled over and was in tears before I could say anything.

"Calm down guys I wont tell."

Alya breathed an audible sigh of relief.

---Alya's POV---

What was I supposed to do? Nino just stated what that little box was and it didn't even occur to me that Adrien wouldn't get it. Nino and I had known about each other for a little while now and were getting used to the idea. Apparently too used to it. We just unintentionally told Adrien that...

"Wait how did you figure out which heroes we were?"

Now it was Adrien's turn to sweat. I stared at him harder than I did at Marinette when she was keeping a secret. It usually worked on her and made her spill her guts. I never tried it on anyone else before though. 

"I.. Uh..."

No response. 

"Dude how are you not freaking out more?" Nino asked.

That stared my gears turning. I had been a little slow today due to the incident with Lila at school, but now my detective brain was working harder than ever. 

Adrien also recognized the box. That ment he had received a miraculous since that was the only place I had ever seen one before. The design was way to intricate to be coincidental and there was no way that he could recognize it based off of a description Chloe gave him or something. 

I thought back to the Miracle Queen incident a little bit ago. Honestly most of it was a blur of nothing. Ladybug told us that we should be safe to continue using our Miraculous when she needed us for the most part because she was pretty sure that Hawkmoth was too busy with the Miraculous Box to memorize faces.  Still, she wanted to wait a little before giving away another one. I haven't seen a box like this since.

That was a dark day. I'm still not completely sure what happened, but I think Chloe made a deal with Hawkmoth, possibly getting closer than anyone before to the Miraculous.  From what Ladybug told me and Nino, there was a chance that Hawkmoth had seen us all transform. What I definitely do NOT remember, is Adrien being anywhere near the scene in my scattered memories.

Something was up with Adrien, and there was no denying it was big. 

"Adrien, how did you recognize the box?" I watched closely for his answer. 

"I didn't! You were the one who said what it was!"

Touché. 

"Fair enough." I hadn't dropped the issue of course, but there was no way he was going to tell me at this rate. It would take a little digging.

"Why are there so many though?" Nino breathed

That snapped me back to the present. Marinette's bedroom. The fact that she was missing. The very confusing fact that she seemed to have enough Miraculous Holders for every Miraculous in existence. The fact that I had never seen more than two of these things at a time, and yet here Marinette was. With dozens of them.

"Marinette never received a Miraculous I don't think..." Nino started. "She should have no idea what..."

"OH!" I realized something that I had never thought of before. 

"I think Marinette was friends with Ladybug!"

Adrien chocked on air.