Marinette In Wonderland

Advice from an Unexpected Place

~Time Skip/Chats POV~

'Marinette has to go through so much. Even more than the other Ladybugs, and so fast. Of all of them, why her? I know I don't remember anything that happened with the other Ladybugs, but I know Marinette now. She's so strong and determined. I know she'll do the right thing, and I don't want to lose her. Right now is what matters, and losing her is not an option,' I think.

Today is her last day of training considering everything that happened yesterday. Max had to stay up all not designing and helping make more traps outside the perimeter. He spent most of his afternoon yesterday designing the most complicating obstacle course I've seen yet. Marinette knows she just has to restart if she fails, and learn from her mistakes. 'I hope the pressure doesn't cause her to lose her focus and mess up.'

Sighing, I get ready for what I have to teach Marinette today. That is until I hear footsteps behind me. I turn to see Nathanaël. "Yes, what is it?" I ask suspiciously.

Nathanaël puts his hands up in defense. "I don't want any trouble. I just want to make sure you protect Marinette to your best abilities during the battle. I know she's important to you. Since she's important to me too, I thought I'd come talk to you about this. Have a clear understand that we both want her perfectly safe, yes?"

I nod. "Yes, of course. You'll be fighting too, right? From a distance I presume."

He nods. "Yes, from a distance. It would be better since I have to draw, and have to keep out of sight. It's a little hard to draw if I'm being attacked."

"That makes sense. I'm at least happy you'll keep an eye out. Now we understand what we're going to do," I say.

Nathanaël nods slowly. "Listen, I'm sorry if I've acted jealous towards you recently. It's just Marinette is so comfortable with you, and I already knew you liked her. I just want Marinette to be happy, and in the end, neither of us get her. Not in this work anyways."

"You're right," I say. I hate to admit it though. I don't want to admit that I can't have her. Even if my counterpart does, I can't stand it. Marinette was right. I am very different from her Chat.

As I start to slip deeper into my thoughts, they are distracted by Marinette walking in to the gym. She waves at me and Nathanaël walking over to us. "You two seem to be getting along," she says.

"Yeah. Nathanaël wanted to be on good terms with me. We both thought it was best for the battle," I say with a nod. 'But mainly for you.'

She smiles brightly. "That's great! I'm happy you decided to work things out. It's better to resolve conflict than to let it go on. Speaking of which, I need to train so I can be fully prepared to stop an army on the side of the rebel army. So, definitely need to fix that conflict."

I almost want to laugh, but know it's a lot more serious than she let's on. "Yeah. Not alone of course."

"You have us, so don't expect to do things on your own. Rely on others too," Nathanaël adds in.

"I rely on Chat all the time in my world, so I'll be fine. I promise I won't get into too much trouble if I somehow get separated from everyone," she says.

"It's good to hear that," I say. "I really hope you'll be ready enough for it. You get less time to train. I'm sorry about that."