I'm Here

Chapter 6

"Marinette! Paris needs Ladybug! You need to get out there!" Tikki told Marinette as they sat watching the news on her computer a week later.

"Well, it looks like Cat Noir's got this covered." Marinette sighed, "I'd probably just make things worse for him. If only I had a way to tell him that without revealing my identity."

"But you don't have a choice. What if you said you were a good friend of Ladybug's?" Tikki suggested.

"I don't know. I just feel like this entire thing is just so complicated, ever since Adrien died. I can't take this anymore."

"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" Tikki gasped.

"I need to get out of here." Marinette said, standing up and looking around her room. She checked the clock, and it read 10 at night, "you should probably go find someone else to be Ladybug. I wouldn't be able to do anything for you now. I don't think I can do anything for anyone anymore..."

"No Marinette! I believe in you! Adrien would--"

"Adrien's dead. And he has no idea who I really am. He doesn't know that I'm Ladybug. My life has gone out of whack, and I don't know if I'm able to take it..."

"No, Marinette!" Tikki tried to stop Marinette, but she had already ran out onto her balcony and shut the door in front of Tikki.

Marinette heard Tikki trying to get through the door. She looked down at her hand and clutched a pair of scissors.

"Marinette!" Tikki cried through the door, "Don't do this!"

"I'm sorry Tikki..." Marinette looked down sadly at the scissors and saw a tear fall on them. She brought them up to her throat and held it there for a second. Suddenly, before she could do anything, someone grabbed it from behind her and threw it over the rails.

Marinette gasped, then two strong arms grabbed her shoulders and whirled her around.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"I-I'm sorry...' Marinette's eyes were blurred with tears and she couldn't recognize the person. She let her tears fall and she fell to her knees. The person knelt down in front of her, wrapped his strong arms around her, and pulled her closer to him. She cried in the stranger's shoulder as he comforted her.

"Don't do that ever again."

"I'm sorry.... I just couldn't deal with life anymore..." Marinette cried.

"It's okay. I'll help you through this." the voice said as he held her in front of him and wiped away her tears. She sniffed and wiped her eyes as she recognized the person.

"Cat Noir..." Marinette cried as she hugged him again.

"I'll tell you something." Cat Noir smiled, "I knew Adrien. He and I were really good friends."

"R-really?" Marinette sniffed.

"Yeah. He really talked about you a lot. How much he loved you and how much you made him s-smile." Cat Noir's voice cracked, "I'm so sorry, Mari."

"I'm sorry too." Marinette whispered as tears cascaded down her face, then she saw Tikki behind him, "th-there's something I have to tell you. About Ladybug."

"What? Ladybug? What about her?"

"I, uh...." Marinette peeked over at Tikki, "I know her well, too." She saw Tikki slap her forehead, "she and I are good friends, too. I've heard so much about you."

"Oh, I'm sure they're about how annoying I am." Cat Noir looked down, "I feel like she's completely abandoned me."

"Oh no, I'm sure she didn't. Maybe she just... Needed time to recover from that boy's cat." Marinette shrugged, "and yeah, she said some things about how annoying you are, but she says that you're her cat, and that there's no one else like you in the entire world."

"Wow..." Cat Noir smiled, "that's so sweet of her. Do you know where she is right now?"

"Unfortunately no. But I'll tell her you said 'Hi' when I see her." Marinette smiled, "look, please don't take what happened seriously."

"I will, whether you like it or not. No one else has to know, but I don't want to lose you." Cat Noir said, putting his hand on her shoulder, "that is, if you'll accept my help?"

Marinette thought hard, then finally nodded, "okay."

"Great. Then I'll drop in every so often." Cat Noir winked, "see you later, My Lady." with that, Cat Noir jumped off the balcony and headed off.

"Marinette! Are you okay?!" Tikki gasped as she finally got through the door.

"How did Cat Noir know?" Marinette thought out loud as she continued to look off after Cat Noir, "how did he know I was going to..."

"Was he watching you?" Tikki looked up at her.

"I'm not sure....." Marinette replied, "but now I feel a little bad for him... I never really knew how much he really cared about me... or Ladybug, too."

"Who could Cat Noir be?" Marinette asked, "now I really want to know who could be so caring about me."

______________________________________

"This isn't good..." Cat Noir said as he walked through a sewer under Paris, "what have I done."

As soon as he made it to the back of the sewer, he turned left and there was a little home-like set-up in the little room. His ring blinked, and he transformed back into Adrien.

"Dude, why don't you just tell her?" Plagg asked.

"Because, things would get complicated with our relationship, and when Nathalie finds out..."

"Forget them! Take Marinette and run off!" Plagg suggested.

"Seriously?" Adrien rose an eyebrow as he collapsed into a chair, "I don't know what to do..."

"Aw, is the little boy missing his masked sweetheart?" Plagg fluttered his eyelids.

"No. I... don't know.... Marinette or Ladybug. It's tearing me in half..." Adrien sighed, "but where's Ladybug? She disappeared..."

"You've got Marinette. Forget Ladybug!"

"Plagg, I don't know what to do. She's been gone, Marinette almost killed herself. I can never leave her side now. Who knows what she can do to herself?"

"Come on. You're one creepy kid, you know that? No other person I've been with has ever faked his death and stalked his girlfriend from the building across her house..." Plagg rolled his eyes.

"She almost killed herself because of me." Adrien explained, "but I can't tell her that I'm Cat Noir."

"Did you hear, though? Ladybug actually cares about you! That's a first!" Plagg snickered.

"Haha, very funny." Adrien rolled his eyes, "I'll just catch Marinette after school tomorrow."

Adrien sighed as he got up and went straight to his cot, then fell asleep in thirty seconds flat.