Hurricane

Chapter 2: Masks

Renard held onto Lacorne for probably much longer than was appropriate, but he couldn't seem to make himself let go. Luckily, she seemed to be perfectly content in the hug. She stroked his hair with one hand and held onto him with the other. Only once Renard pulled back did she let go, and even then she took his hand again and laced their fingers together.

"What was the universe that you went to like?" he asked.

He knew that they should be getting home.

But going home meant jumping right into dealing with everything that waited for them there...

"It was different," Lacorne said, looking thoughtful. "There were four main heroes. They were using the Black Cat, the Peacock, the Pig, and the Dragon. I only met the first two."

"Huh, those are different choices," Renard said.

"Well, they weren't fighting against a person. It was these things called demons," she said.

"... Demons?" Renard repeated.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I completely understand what they were myself. Fluff and Kaalki can explain it much better than I can. And when we get Tikki and Plagg back, they'll probably be able to give even more information," Lacorne said.

It felt good to hear her say when, not if.

"They also had a guardian," Lacorne went on, smiling wryly. "You'll never guess who it was."

Renard thought for a few seconds, trying to figure out who could put that weird expression on his lady's face. His first thought was that she had met the alternate universe version of Master Fu, but he was pretty sure that Lacorne would be much sadder if that was the case. She missed Master Fu a lot, and right now she didn't look sad at all.

Maybe an alternate universe version of herself? A world where, once she became the guardian, Marinette had given up her miraculous in favor of someone else?

Though Renard couldn't even imagine such a world where that happened...

"Come on, guess!" Lacorne urged.

"I don't know. You?" he said.

"Nope. Guess again." Her eyes were twinkling.

"Alya?" Renard said. He could see that. Alya had been collecting information about the miraculous since long before she got one herself. Some of the posts she created for the Ladyblog contained very educated guesses about the miraculous and how they worked. If she became the guardian, she wouldn't rest until she knew every scrap of information that there was to know. She would be the most informative guardian ever.

Lacorne shook her head. "Interesting thought, and I'm sure there's a world out there where that is the case, but no. You get one more guess."

Renard sighed. "I really don't know. Nino?"

His only basis for that was that Nino had used the Turtle miraculous just like Master Fu, but on further thought he could see how Nino would make a good guardian. Nino was often a calming influence on their group, especially on Alya. He wasn't really into research, but he knew a hell of a lot about the topics that he was passionate about.

"Three strikes and you're out. It was Chloé," Lacorne said.

Her smile grew wider when Renard's jaw dropped.

"Ch-Chloé?" Renard stammered. "Seriously? What kind of alternate universe did you end up in?!"

Lacorne laughed. "Right? I was asking myself the same question after I realized who she was."

"Well that's different," Renard said thoughtfully. "Maybe you and I aren't the only ones who wear masks."

Now that he was thinking about it... maybe Chloé would make a good guardian. She was fiercely protective of the things that she cared about, so no one would ever get the miraculous away from her. And Chloé was not someone who allow herself to be intimidated, whether it was by a thief or by another miraculous holder. She was good at standing her ground, and, like Nino, she knew a lot about things she cared about.

"You don't really think Chloé would be a good guardian?" Lacorne said, a bit incredulously.

Renard squeezed her hand. "I think it doesn't matter because the Miracle Box in our world already has the best guardian possible," he said soothingly.

Lacorne blushed a bit. "I don't know about that," she said, mollified. "That was the weirdest thing from the universe I visited. What about you?"

"Well, I met your dad," Renard said. "There was just one big difference that I could tell."

"What's that?" Lacorne said, looking intrigued, and he grinned at her.

"Guess," he said teasingly, and she huffed.