Ladybug & Cat Noir Identity Reveal

4 - Marinette / Ladybug

Marinette tried to calm her nerves as she changed into a clean set of clothes. Adrien was coming over...no big deal. They were just going to study together and everything would be cool. 

Her parents had been happy to hear that a friend was coming over to study with her, and hopefully help her improve her grades. Her dad might have gotten a little too excited though, and had made a plate of sandwiches and macarons for them to snack on as they studied. 

Marinette pulled on her favourite gray jacket and checked for flour or stains in the mirror. Her parents had made her help out in the bakery lately, as a form of punishment for constantly getting into fights with Lila at school, and for her dropping grades. Marinette couldn't blame them, she saw how it looked from their perspective, but she wished so badly she could tell them the real reason why her life was falling apart. 

It didn't matter, she'd played out that scenario a million times before in her mind, it usually ended in them thinking everything was far too dangerous and grounding her. 

"Marinette? Are you okay?" Tikki asked.

"Yeah...no... does it really matter?" Marinette sighed. 

"Of course it does, even Ladybug needs help sometimes," Tikki nuzzled her head against Marinette's cheek.

"Thanks Tikki, but I'll be okay. I need all the help I can get for this physics test." 

Her dad's voice called from downstairs, "Marinette! Your friend is here!"

"Coming!" Marinette dashed downstairs to the bakery where Adrien was waiting with his backpack. 

"Hey Marinette! How are you?" he asked.

"Good, good. Let's go upstairs, are you hungry?" Marinette asked as she pulled him upstairs and away from her parents' prying eyes and questions.

"No, I just ate, but thank you," Adrien said as they entered her room. 

Marinette cleared her desk so they could both use the space, "Oh cool, well, if you do get hungry, my dad made us snacks."

"Seriously? Your parents are the coolest Marinette," Adrien sat beside her. 

"Yeah...I guess they are," she smiled up at him. "So, I thought we could start with math for half an hour, and then switch to physics, and then back to math and so on. What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me," Adrien said as he pulled his books out. 

They worked for the next half hour through some worksheets, helping each other work out the problems. Marinette was a little annoyed that Adrien was already so good at it, but it wasn't too bad. He helped her spot some simple mistakes she was making, and by the time they started on physics she was getting the problems right more often than not. 

"You're a natural at math, I don't even know why you needed my help," Marinette laughed. 

"Really, I'd always thought it was my worst subject," Adrien said, puzzled.

Marinette rolled her eyes, "I can only imagine how well you do in all your other subjects." They stayed there for a moment, smiling at each other. "Well, now it's your turn. Physics is definitely not my best subject, so good luck."

Unfortunately, at that moment a huge crash sounded outside. 

Marinette and Adrien yelped, before rushing to the window to see what had happened. 

An enormous cloud of pigeons filled the sky as Mr Pigeon perched above them.

"Ugh again? Hawkmoth is getting real desperate these days," Marinette said. It took her a moment to realise that she was the one who was supposed to stop him. 

"Yeah," Adrien looked outside angrily, "Hey, uh, where's your bathroom?" 

Marinette gave him a confused look, was this really the time? She pointed him downstairs though, and he dashed away. She supposed it was a good thing, this way, she could transform without him seeing.

"Tikki? Spots on," Marinette's voice seemed deflated, but she was able to transform and climb out onto the roof mere seconds before the pigeons dropped a bunch of the cars they'd been lifting.

One of them clipped the edge of her balcony, tearing a hole into her bedroom and the second floor of her house before landing hard on the ground. Once, she would have freaked out, but she knew her miraculous ladybug could fix it all. Then she remembered that Adrien was on the second floor.

Marinette turned around to see Chat Noir behind her, she went from worried to confused in seconds. "Chat Noir? You got here fast."

"Of course milady, early cat gets the mouse," he grinned at her. 

Ladybug rolled her eyes, before remembering Adrien again.

"Wait, where's Adrien?"

"Where's Marinette?" 

They stared at each other for a second, both speaking at the same time.

"He's fine."

"She's fine."

Ladybug crossed her arms.

"How do you know Adrien?"

"How do you know Marinette?"

"Chat! We'll deal with this later," Ladybug groaned, turning to face Mr Pigeon. As with all the other times, his pigeon whistle sat around his neck, the home of the akuma.

"Ready to go milady?"

"Do I get a choice?" she gave him a tired smile as they both leapt off the roof and into the fray.

*****************

Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please give it a vote if you did, it really helps the story reach even more readers. :D