Runaway 🌑 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

Chapter 8 | Out Here In Plain Sight

Marinette stopped to catch her breath and leaned against the brick wall, panting. She looked down at her shoes. "What am I going to do, Tikki?"

The kwami looked at her owner, searching for an answer, and frowned. "I... I don't know, Marinette. I'm not familiar with this type of situation."

"What, having a holder be guilty of murder?" She joked.

"You're not guilty of anything!" Tikki reminded her.

"Everyone else seems to think so!"

"Because they've been tricked! Lied to. Didn't you hear what Adrien said?" Tikki flew closer to the dark-haired girl's face. "He said he'll do everything to make sure your name is cleared."

Marinette checked the time on her phone. "That could take months, if not years, Tikki. I don't have that kind of time. I just can't keep running around. I need somewhere safe to hide. I need..." As she realized she was holding her phone, which could be easily tracked, she stepped away from the wall and chucked it to the ground. Her phone broke in pieces and she sighed in relief.

"I need a disguise," She finally said.

Tikki looked around and her eyes stopped at a costume shop across the street. "What about there?"

Marinette turned around. "Oh. That's good. But what would it matter? I can't just walk in and buy something."

The kwami pouted.

Her eyes widened slightly. "But..." She ran across the street and ducked by the side of the building, inching closer to a metal door. She tried to open it, but it's locked. "Damn it."

An idea hit her and she reached into her purse for a spare bobby pin. She pulled the metal apart and stuck it into the lock, twisting slowly.

"Marinette, what are you doing?!" Tikki whispered.

"What does it look like?" Her holder said. "I'm breaking in."

"Does that seem like the right thing to do?"

The dark-haired girl sighed. "Of course not, Tikki, but all of Paris is searching for me. If they find me they're not going to give me a chance to explain myself. They're going to throw me in a cell to rot for the rest of my life. Until I can prove that video is fake and that I'm innocent, I need to go into hiding, which means I need a disguise. Right now this is what I have to do."

Tikki frowned. "I understand, Marinette."

There was a soft tick and Marinette smiled. "Perfect." She threw the bobby pin back into her purse and slowly opened the door.

She snuck inside, glancing out from the backroom, and found the store empty. The owner's probably out looking for me, trying to get that reward. She grabbed a duffel bag from a shelf and made her way into the main part of the store.

Marinette picked a selections of wigs—from shades of blonde, red, purple, orange, and rainbow—and various shirts, pants, skirts. She didn't know how long she'd be in hiding, and have many disguises could protect her in the long run.

Behind the counter, she grabbed the assorted snacks and candies and stuffed them in the duffel bag. A cloak for an assassin's costume hanging on the wall caught her eye and she laughed. "Fitting, huh?" She joked to Tikki as she took it and added it to her stolen goods.

"I don't have anywhere to hide yet, so I should probably put a disguise on," Marinette wondered out loud as she headed for the dressing room. She shoved her old clothes away and changed into a white-and-blue plaid dress, ditching the straw hat and apron that came in the farmer's costume. She zipped up the knee-high boots she found in a tote and tugged on an old cardigan she found behind the front counter.

"Which wig do you want?" Tikki asked as she searched through the bottom of the duffel bag.

Marinette bit her lip, thinking. "I'll do the blonde one for now. Just the opposite of what I usually look like."

The kwami handed her the wig, struggling with the weight, and the dark-haired girl grabbed more bobby pins from her purse as she pinned the wig down to her real hair, adjusting it in place. There was nothing she could do about the frizz, though.

Marinette faced the mirror and for the final touch, slipped on a pair of white, flower-shaped sunglasses. "How do I look?"

Tikki tilted her head as she stared at her holder. "Umm... it's definitely different."

"Not too noticeable, thankfully," She noted as she spun around. "If anyone gets too close, they'd recognize my face, though."

She left the dressing room and walked alongside the backwall until she found the makeup collection, applying a lot of blush and a layer of bright, red lipstick.

Marinette stared at herself in a mirror and sighed. "It'll have to do for now."

"Someone's coming!" Tikki shouted as she flew back to hide in her holder's purse.

The accused murdered—now disguised as an ordinary blonde—snuck back out through the door she came in and jogged across the street. She shoved her hands in the pockets on the cardigan and tried to stay calm.

I can't bring attention to myself. I can't look suspicious. I'm just a normal girl with a normal life, just another random, unimportant civilian in Paris.

She followed the memorized way back to her house. Though, she didn't know what would happen when she got there. Would her parents protect her? Did they believe their daughter was a cold, blooded killer?

As Marinette crossed the street, she spotted a small group marching towards her led by Chloe. Her eyes widened and she was grateful for the sunglasses covering half her face. If she kept poise and stayed calm, no one will recognize her.

Chloe squinted her eyes at the stranger as they passed. "Hey, you!"

Marinette froze as her heart raced. She slowly turned around.

"Have you seen this girl?" The mayor's daughter raised her phone and shoved it in her face. "We're looking for this traitor. Seen her around?"

"Umm..." Marinette nodded slowly and pointed in a direction away from her parent's bakery. "I saw her go that way! I think she was buying a bus ticket."

Chloe faced her followers. "Let's go!"

Marinette sighed in relief as the crowd disappeared around the corner. Alya and Nino weren't with them. That's a good thing, right? Do they believe me?

She turned back around and kept walking. After about ten minutes, she's a block away from the bakery, and ran the rest of the way over.

The front doors were locked. She cupped her hands against the glass and peeked inside. Mom and Dad must've closed early. I wonder where they are.

Were they home safe inside or out in a riot looking for their daughter that had a bounty on her head for murder?

"Is that... Marinette?!"

The accused's eyes widened and she didn't look over to see who the voice belonged to. She grabbed her duffel bag and took off running.

"Marinette!" Sabine shouted again and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. She squeezed her husband's hand. "Our daughter isn't a killer... right, my love?"

"Of course not, my sweet," Tom assured her.

"Then... why did she run?"

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Random Question: Red pandas or foxes?
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