Gone

Chapter 12

I sat still, and nervously looked at Tiki and Plagg. Tiki quickly flew into the front room and me and Plagg listened carefully.

"Hey Tiki, it's good to see you moving around." I heard her voice, her voice.

"Yeah, I um, have something to show you." I heard Tiki say nervously.

"Can it wait till tomorrow? I'm a little tired."

"I don't think it can wait till tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Well, it's in the kitchen."

"Oh, the cakes. Did you manage to get them out? I'm sorry I took a little longer than expected getting home, I took a wrong turn on the way back."

She called this home, I don't know why but that made my heart sink a little.

"Well I didn't get the cakes out." Tiki started.

"Are they still in there?"

"Well no, but-"

"Tiki, what is going on with you?"

"Just go look in the kitchen."

I held my breath as I heard her walk towards the kitchen.

"Ok, but it better not be something bad like that one time whe-

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me.

"Adrien?"

I stood up slowly and I felt tears start to run down my cheeks. She was ok. She wasn't dead, and she was standing right in front of me.

"Hi, Marinette."

"What are you doing here? How did you find me? I made sure no one was able t-"

I stopped her by running over and hugging her. She stopped talking and slowly wrapped her arms around me. She felt smaller than I remembered. I buried my nose in her hair, so glad to have her back. I cried a little harder, being able to hold her again. I pulled away and got a good look at her. She had tears in her eyes too. She looked shorter to me now, or maybe it was just in the time she's been gone.

"I missed you so, so much." I cried "I never stopped looking for you, a-and-"

She reached up and wiped away some of my tears. She smiled softly.

"I missed you too Adrien."

I smiled at her. She grabbed my hand and had me sit down with her.

"Th-they said you were dead, a-and I, I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."

"Hey, I'm not dead, see."

"The whole school thinks you're dead, even your parents."

"Maybe it's for the best." She sighed.

"For the best? Marinette, a-are you serious? We all miss you so much. I want you to come home."

"Adrien, I am home." She said softly.

"No, this isn't your home. Marinette I have been so worried, and I have been looking for you everywhere. Then I find out that you've been there the whole time! You said you couldn't look for, well you, because of your responsibilities as Ladybug. Why would you do that? We got into such a big fight over it too. Marinette I love you, so much. I will not lose you again."

"Wait did you say fight over it? Adrien we never fought about it."

"Yes we did, M'lady."

She slowly looked over to Plagg, then down at my ring, before looking back at me.