Future Tales of the Miraculous

Chapter 5

"Time to wake up sleepyhead," Alya prodded at her dozing friend. It was Friday, and the last class just adjourned for the day.

"Sorry," A yawn escaped Marinette's mouth, "I've been restless all week."

A full week had passed since that night with Adrien, but it was still freshly seared into her mind, making for many sleepless nights. She had yet another steamy dream about that rainy evening having an alternate ending. The night had ended with Adrien pulling Marinette into his arms one last time, and without protest from her, planting a soft kiss on her forehead before taking his leave. But in her dreams, they shared a evening filled with continued passionate kissing, aggressive groping, with clothes being haphazardly shed about the floor before multiple sessions of explicit lovemaking ensued.

"So," Alya started, wiggling her eyebrows, "I heard Adrien's been single now for a whole two weeks! Can you believe that? Does it have anything to do with a certain blue haired girl having finally captured his heart?"

"Alya, nothing's changed," the bluenette replied, not sure if that counted as a lie, given recent events. "I'm still dating Nathaniel, remember?"

"Look, Mari - I tell you this because I want to see my best friend happy. I think that poor boy is way more into you than you are into him. I know you said you're over Adrien, but I see the see the way you two make googly eyes at each other. Hell, I'm sure Nathaniel does too whenever Adrien comes around."

Marinette rolled her eyes incredulously at her best friend, but failed to find fault in her opinion. As they left the school, Nathaniel and Nino waved them down, joining in on their walk home. As expected, Nino and Alya paired up, fingers immediately intertwining as the two carelessly showered affection for one another. Seeing their cute rituals of endearment always put a smile on Marinette's face, which is why she usually didn't mind tagging along as the 3rd wheel, or nervously walking aside Adrien when he didn't have fencing practice. However, Nathaniel had made effort to join in on their walks home as of late, leaving him and Marinette to awkwardly drum up conversation. Alya and Nino spied quick glances behind them as the two engaged with one another, cringing and shaking their heads.
The redhead turned his attention to the entire group and recalled one of the most amazing days of his life, i.e. the comics convention that past Saturday.

Marinette and Nathaniel embarked to the Palais des Congrés de Versailles for the convention as planned. Nathaniel enjoyed an entire afternoon of geeking out. However, it wasn't long before trouble broke out within the convention. Two akumatized victims emerged, originally a twin brother and sister pair, calling themselves the Comickaze. The 12 year old retro rainbow painted boy wielded a wide selection of incendiaries, while his grayscale inked sister captured her victims into collectible package boxes, turning them into lifeless action figures.

In the chaotic crowd of people escaping the destruction around the center.  Nathaniel lost sight of Marinette but was able witness the amazing battle between Ladybug and the Comickaze up close, hiding behind a mound of rubble. Chat Noir arrived soon after the fighting broke out, playfully distracting the twins and uncovering their akumatized totems while Ladybug worked her lucky charm to devise a plan of defeating the two. The battle was harrowing; at one point both heroes sustained significant injuries from the bombs being shucked at them.

Ladybug ended up trapped in a collectible box, struggling desperately to get out as her lower body began to transform into a doll. Chat Noir came to the rescue, having to use his one and only Cataclysm attack to destroy the box. Now freed, the red and black spotted heroine used her lucky charm item, which was a limited edition autographed graphic novel, to cause the tween villains to fight amongst themselves and allow the stealthy feline to steal their totems. Once the Akuma butterflies were de-evilized, Ladybug invoked her signature Miraculous Ladybug to reverse the damage done to the complex as well as free the famed artists from their collectible box prisons. She and the black cat were immediately rushed by cheering fans. Chat Noir shamelessly winked and blew kisses at the gaggle of fangirls around him, and LadyBug thanked a few fans before they both took off.

Nathaniel found Marinette shortly after, who apparently hid in the panel room the entire time. On the way back home, Nathaniel gushed about his adoration of Ladybug, adding in criticisms of Chat Noir's showboating and general inferiority. It was nice to know he was at least a fan of Ladybug, Marinette thought, but felt a little defensive over his harsh words about her partner.
"Chat Noir can definitely be a bit of a show off," she said after Nathaniel finished, "but he does a great job working with LadyBug as a team to save the city."
Nathaniel rolled his deep blue green eyes, calling her another black cat fan girl, bringing about a playful argument between the two. In times like these, Adrien's words would flash in her mind. Would Nathaniel ever make her feel the same way she felt about Adrien? So far, all she felt for the redhead was a budding platonic kinship, making her wonder if romantic feelings would ever come for Nathaniel.

When the group entered a crosswalk, a lagging Marinette threw her head back for a long yawn, not seeing the quickly approaching service truck about to strike her. Nathaniel turned back, albeit too late, to grab her out of harms way. When the truck passed, he saw the back of the tall blonde male model on the other side, fencing gear slung over his shoulder. The startled indigo haired girl clung onto her savior's body, with a fistful of his shirt in each hand. She slowly looked up to him, seeing the familiar jade green eyes inspect her over for any injuries.

"Marinette! Are you okay?" The redhead shouted, jogging across the street to them once the pedestrian light turned green again, his cerulean eyes marked in deep concern.
"Adrien," Nathaniel acknowledged, "Wow, you came out of nowhere. I owe you one; you saved my girlfriend from getting flattened there."

Adrien failed to return a greeting to the redhead, nor did he break his gaze away from Marinette. Instead, his jaw clenched at the word "girlfriend". 

"I'm fine," Marinette assured to both men, fighting to suppress the embarrassment about to overtake her face. "I guess I need to pay more attention and do less yawning," she quipped, letting out a shaky chuckle.
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow at Adrien, then grabbed one of Marinette's clenched hands. She hadn't noticed she still had a death grip on Adrien's fitted athletic t-shirt, to which she reflexively released.
"Well, we should get going, it looks like you're gonna be late for practice." The redhead briefly nodded at Adrien, pulling the indigo haired girl to reach the other side of the crosswalk quickly.

Marinette apologized for causing her group to worry, and broke away from Nathan's grasp to fix her backpack. As they continued on, Marinette contemplated the girlfriend title Nathaniel just now used; it didn't sit well with her, especially since they hadn't discussed being exclusive much less share a kiss.

Adrien stood at the other side of the street, watching as her group walked away and exchanged a short gaze with Marinette. Plagg rustled out of his shirt pocket to observe their surroundings and caught sight of his holder's clenched fists.
"Whoa there, hot stuff. Take a chill pill. Why so worked up? You should be relieved; you just saved your girl's life right....?" the tiny black Kwami paused and scratched his head, "Wait a minute, did that redhead punk just call her his girlfriend?  I thought you guys were making kissy faces a few nights ago....what am I missing here?"
Adrien sighed, then continued en route to the fencing department located to the rear of the school grounds.
"Plagg, it's complicated," he grumpily muttered. "She's figuring things out. And I told her I would give her some space to think about what she wants."
The tiny black cat shook his head in confusion.
"You humans are weird creatures when it comes to this love stuff. Jeez, I swear. It's always like this with the cat and bug."
Adrien peered down at his kwami with raised eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's like you guys are, I dunno, fated to be in each other's lives? Whenever the Ladybug miraculous is awakened, the Black Cat is too. And don't think this is the first Ladybug and cat romance ever taken place in our history. You two falling for each other; it's happened.  A lot," Plagg explained matter of factly. He then yawned lazily, retreated into the snug pocket. "It's time for a catnap, catch ya later."
"Hey! Wait, don't you dare hide away. What happened to the other versions of us? Plagg? Answer me!"
He hissed into the pocket in a hushed tone, eliciting some curious stares from passersby. Grumbling something unintelligible, Adrien gave up and proceeded to hurry over to practice.

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