No Way Out

A Diary, A Tracking Device, and A White Butterfly

Judging by the dim sunlight creeping in through the curtains, Adrien knew that it wasn't quite time to get up yet. Once he realized that Marinette wasn't lying next to him, however, he was wide awake. He pushed the covers off and waited a minute to see if she was just using the bathroom, but when she didn't come back to bed, he started to get nervous.

"Princess?" he whispered, walking over to the closet and the bathroom. With still no sign of her, he hurried to the hall. "Princess?"

"In here, Kitty!" she called back, not too loudly.

Going into the storage room, Adrien found Marinette sitting on the floor next to a pile of boxes. He exhaled. "I got scared for a second."

"Sorry," she replied with a delicate smile. "I woke up and started thinking about what would happen when I go into work later today, and then I was too nervous to fall back asleep. I didn't want to wake you."

"You can always wake me if you need to." He moved over and sat next to her. "What's that?" he asked, eyeing the book in her hands.

A big smile. "It's my diary from when I was younger. You know, around the time we met. I originally came in here to look through some of the designs I've made, but once I stumbled on this, my curiosity got the best of me. It's pretty interesting," she said, referring to the diary again.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, you guys already told me a lot about what happened back then, but it's nice to read it from my own perspective." Marinette laughed a little. "There's some interesting stories in here about Adrien and Chat Noir. It's funny that we knew each other as our regular selves and as our superhero selves without realizing that we were all the same people."

Now Adrien laughed. "It was definitely crazy back then. I was chasing after you while you were chasing after me, and we were only getting in our own way." They both laughed for a minute before Adrien continued. "What part are you at?"

"Let's see," she murmured, skimming the page. "It looks like we just defeated a villain named Timetagger."

He nodded in thought. "The akuma attack at the Louvre. I remember. You were as wonderful as always, figuring out how to defeat him."

"Well, it seems like I had a lot of help from Bunnyx and my future self. And of course you, and future you were there to help too. I could never defeat any of those villains without you there with me."

"I wouldn't say that," Adrien replied with a smirk. "You were always the brains of the operation. I was just the eye-candy."

She laughed out loud again. "You definitely do your job very well." As soon as she realized what she just said, her face blushed furiously and she had to look away.

He only smirked more. "Oh, you think so?"

"Come on, Kitty," Marinette said quietly. "You know that you're good-looking. You wouldn't be a model if you weren't."

"I guess, but it's just nice to know that you think that I'm good-looking."

Waiting for her blush to go away, she nodded and turned her attention to the diary again. She flipped a page. "And now we have Party Crasher." She flipped again. "And now..."

Adrien had to interrupt. "I think that maybe you should skip the next few pages, Princess."

She looked at him. "Why?"

"Something bad is coming up soon. I'd rather you not have to relive it."

Not fully understanding, but trusting her husband, Marinette nodded. Then she closed the diary. "That's enough for right now anyway. It's a lot of information to take in." She paused. "I read all about Lila. I sure didn't think very highly of her," she laughed.