Miraculous Games

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five:

"Master Fu!" Adrien shouted, bursting into the Charm's training room. All the Charms froze where they were. The only sound was Max the Owl falling off the climbing wall and yelping as he hit the ground. Standing on the wrestling mat, Master Fu turned to face him. The look he gave Adrien made Marinette glad he wasn't in his place.

"Yes, Adrien?" he asked.

Marinette saw Adrien swallow out of the corner of her eye, then he spat out his message. "Sir, the packages arrived in the janitorial closet. Everything is accounted for from what I can see. I haven't opened them because I wanted to get you first."

Master Fu's eyebrows shot up. "She followed through on her promise?"

He nodded. Marinette pulled her wrist out of Adrien's grip and took a few steps away from the conversation. "What are you two talking about? Who sent those packages?"

"My thoughts exactly," Lila commented from across the room. The raven Charm was leaning on a tall spear, giving Ladybug a skeptical glare. Marinette scowled and turned her attention to Master Fu. The old man was rubbing his cane like he was uncertain if he wanted to spill the answers. After a couple long seconds, he locked eyes with Adrien.

"I believe Adrien should be the one to explain since it is a very personal matter to him."

Marinette spun her look to Adrien. No one else would have seen the uncertainty behind his solid expression, but Marinette could. She could see his Adam's apple jump, his fists clench tighter, and his breathing waver for just a second. She opened her mouth to say something, but Adrien beat her to it. He flicked his gaze toward her.

"I don't think it matters how we got them. What's more important is what's in them." He turned toward Master Fu. "What's in the packages, sir?"

The Chinese man smirked. "Why don't you bring them here and we'll find out together."

Just like that, Adrien disappeared. Marinette stood alone, barely able to catch Adrien's body sprinting back upstairs. Without a second thought, she ran after him. Before she left the room, however, she turned.

"We're going to need some help! Dad, Kim, Felix, Nino, Alya, Natha-" she stopped and shook her head. He wasn't here. She continued like nothing had happened, "We need to get all the boxes down here!"

The operation itself didn't take long, especially with so many people helping. As they transferred the boxes, Marinette kept trying to get Adrien's attention, but he seemed to be off in some distant world. She would try and ask him questions. He would either respond with a simple "Mmhmm?", a nod of the head, or he wouldn't even do anything. It was like talking to a rock. Something was up, something he wasn't telling her.

She didn't want to get mad at him, but it was peeving to think that she had just spilled her heart to him and now he wasn't opening up to her. Weren't they on the same team? Could he not trust her? Or was she just looking to much into it? That was probably it. She most likely was taking it too far.

Taking a deep breath, Marinette focused on getting the boxes downstairs into the training center. Even after being in the healing pod for a while, she was still a little sore. Before Adrien had been called down to see her earlier, she had talked with Nathanael about how he was feeling. He had said that he was still facing some of the side effects of the arena, even though he had been through the healing pod. Marinette couldn't help but agree with him. It was like her body was still putting itself back together. Because of this, she couldn't lift as much as she wanted to. Instead of carrying two boxes, she could barely carry one. Not only was that a little frustrating, but it made her feel slightly useless.