The Missing Purrincess

Chapter 40: Marinette

He bit his lip and took a long swig of his water in a clear as crystal attempt to not answer her question.

---Alya's POV---

Nino jumped a little when I mentioned Marinette. Interesting. He couldn't know she was Ladybug already could he?

"Ok, looks like you two gotta talk. Ella, Etta, let's go to the park so your sister can talk with headphones over here."

"YAY!"

The twins rushed over to Nora, who picked one up in each arm and put them on her shoulders and walked out the door. She gave me a look before she left though. One that said "If he makes you cry, Anansi is getting a round two in the akuma ring."

"Sooooo. A secret about Marinette? I guess it would depend. Not that I know anything that's for sure."

Hmm. He definitely knows something. If it took me this long to find out who she was, it's most likely not the Ladybug thing, but clearly somethings up. I've always been able to tell when he was lying and right then he was definitely lying.

"A big secret. One that she probably wouldn't want others to know."

It started as me asking advice in a subtle way about what to do with the knowledge that Marinette is Ladybug, but it turned into grilling Nino pretty quick.

"Oh! Heh. That kind of secret. Well I guess. Uh. It depends on what the girl wants? I mean, if it's about her. You know?" He stumbled his way through his words.

Maybe he did know about Ladybug? What else could make Nino this tongue tied? I needed to test him. See if he actually knew about Marinette being Ladybug, or if It was something else. But subtly, so if he didn't know he wouldn't find out.

"What if you're really worried about her. Like for her safety and stuff." I reasoned.

Nino wouldn't look me in the eyes, choosing instead to focus on the TV in the background where the twins show was still playing.

"Maybe, but I mean. It would depend on the dudette's secret I guess. Not that I know any of her secrets heh heh." He chuckled nervously, still refusing to look directly at me.

So he knew a secret of Marinette's. 

"I guess. But what if you could do something to help her?"

"She put her trust in me." I raised an eyebrow at his response, "METAPHORICLY! In this particular example, she would have put her trust in me."

"Why are you acting weird Babe? It's just a question."

"You're acting weird! I'm responding in a normal way cuz I'm acting normal."

"You know don't you Nino?"

He gulped hard. He clearly knew at this point. He was acting weird the moment I mentioned Marinette's name and now he was seating bullets.

Nino went over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. He still refused to look me in the eye, avoiding my gaze of destruction and truth.

"Know what Babe?" 

"Marinette's secret."

Nino bit his lip and took a long swig of his water in a clear as crystal attempt to not answer my question. The answer was already obvious, there wasn't any other secret of hers that he could possibly know and he obviously knew something big. 

"You know Marinette is Ladybug."

Nino spat out his water.

---Adrien's POV---

I stared at the latest updates on the Ladyblog. One about Ladybug's characteristics as normal, and then two livestreams. Both from the school right before the attack. 

One of the streams was a lower quality, filmed on Nino's phone instead of hers which she had purchased specifically for the camera. It was the one where the class tried to get Ladybug to come to the school before Sabrina was akumatized. 

The other, was a higher quality, filmed with Alya's camera. A good angle and high audio quality, showing everything that Alya set it up to show until a hand grabbed it and threw it out a window. The presentation.

Alya had been smart. The stream picked up everything she said. All of it. It picked up the presentation, the video, Prince Ali, and Lila's confession, and it spread it to the world. If anyone were to look up Lila Rossi now, this video would show up. She was ruined. And she deserved it.

Lila went too far. Simple lies, like knowing people she didn't hurt nobody. Lies like being hurt when she wasn't caused some discomfort at times, but it was worth it to avoid an akuma. But what Lila did took it way too far to take the high road. It went to bulling.

Sweet, innocent, kind Marinette was painted as a bully and a jerk, because of Lila, and now she was getting what she deserved. All was revealed through Alya's blog and Sabrina's akumatization. There was no lying her way out of this. Not anymore.

Now that the truth was out, I needed to refocus on Marinette coming back home. I knew I could convince Ladybug to help me search eventually. The more akumatizations caused by her absence, the less reason she had to deny it. Besides, I was sure I could get at least Jagged Stone to ask her to look for her, and I knew she had a soft spot for a certain Adrien Agreste, who happened to be me.

There was a couple of times where I caught Ladybug staring at one of my ads, blushing and staring and everything. Once, I heard her muttering the words to the perfume ad before giggling to herself. The same way that Marinette did that day at the theater, except I teased her and she blushed red. And she was in pajamas instead of a red skintight suit.

I closed the Ladyblog, sighing and picking up a picture of Marinette and me I kept on my desk. It was a school event that she had put together and she was doing relatively well with her shyness. I had my arm around her shoulder, my lucky charm on my wrist, and her charm on hers. There was a slight nervousness to her smile, the way she always seemed around me, but there was a genuine spark in her eyes. A familiar spunkiness showing through her expression.

"I hope you're okay Marinette. I'll find you soon."

"Kid, you're talking to a picture."

"Shut  up. Actually..."

I put the picture down and stretched my arms out.

"Let's go look for her now. PLAGG CLAWS OUT!"

(A/N Alya has a REALLY bad problem with jumping to conclusions)