The Miraculous tales of cat noir and ladybug

The Bubbler

"Birthday... Happy..."

Marinette flinched when her alarm started beeping and she almost threw her phone against the wall. Shortly after she stopped the alarm and stretched. Tikki looked at her while she was yawning. "You were talking in your sleep again.", the kwami sighed and shook its head. "Well Tikki, it's because you have been making me a nervous wreck almost every day since last week. Mayur is stressing me out too and you're not making it better." She dressed herself in her standard clothing and brushed her hair. "And the beeping of my alarm reminds me of my miraculous. I almost had a heart attack!" But the kwami didn't really care. Marinette wanted to think that Tikki just didn't realize what she was doing to her. That Tikki wanted to care but forgot about it when she thought about her friend all the time. But that didn't negate the fact that Marinette was working on autopilot in the moment. Eleven days in a row she had to fight against the sentimonsters. It got on her nerves. And all Tikki could think about was her friend.

"Duusu needs us. You have to focus Marinette!"

Marinette tried to like Tikki. She was really concerned about her friend, she was ambitious. But Marinette didn't need someone to boss her around. She didn't need the kwami constantly not listening to her and not caring for her feelings. Marinette knew that Tikki didn't do this on purpose but even if by accident it hurt Marinette every day the two of them lived together. A few months was all it took to rip her nerves in half.

Tikki hid in her bag while Marinette ate her breakfast. Her mum looked at her. "How's school going?", she asked and took a sip of her tea. Marinette smiled but it wasn't totally honest. She just didn't want her mom to worry about her. "It's fine Maman. School work was just stressful. But today it is Adrien's birthday!" Her mood got better when she remembered it. Her gift was securely tucked in her bag, a cute blue scarf she had made just for him. Tikki was pretty upset when she saw Marinette working on the scarf instead of... Marinette didn't even know what Tikki wanted her to do. Play Detective? Search for her friend in the biggest city of France? Tikki didn't seem to know how cities worked.

On her way to school she met up with Alya and they walked together to class. "You're not looking to good girl.", her best friend said casually and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She just couldn't hide it from Alya. "You can talk to me if there is anything." Marinette nodded after that and sighed. "I know Alya, I'm sorry. It's just complicated. Insomnia and school work, stuff like that."

Nino walked up to them after he entered the building. He hummed some tune. Alya raised one hand. "Hey Nino what's up?" He gave her a high five and made a grumpy face. "I have this tune of a bubble gum advert stuck in my head. It's so annoying." He laughed and showed the two girls a package of the said bubble gum. "At least it tastes good."

Marinette looked around while Alya was trying to get some of the gum from Nino. She looked for Adrien but couldn't see him anywhere. After a while she gave up and dodged the packet of bubble gum that would have hit her straight in the face. Being constantly nervous at least made her reflexes better. Her two best friends looked at her and Alya started laughing. "I'm so sorry girl I didn't mean to aim for you!" Nino scratched the back of his head and picked the package up. "You can have one.", he gave in and shared with the brown-haired girl. "Nino do you know where Adrien is?" Marinette asked and sighed. "I wanted to give him his gift. For his birthday." Nino shook his head. "I think he maybe had an appointment for the morning but I don't know." Marinette nodded. "I will give it to him later then."

Alya put one hand on Marinettes shoulder. "Look at this." After that she swiped in her gallery till she apparently found the pictures she searched for. Marinettes mouth was wide open. "When did you get these?"

On the phone Alya had like fifty or so pictures of Cat Noir fighting and walking and basically just being him. Nino looked as surprised as Marinette did. "Dude these are really cool! But why though?" He laughed nervously. "It's like you're stalking him." Alya looked at the pictures while she swiped through the gallery. "I take them everytime I'm fast enough to see a battle. Cat Noir is so cool! And weirdly photogenic... He could be a model."