Reunited (A Miraculous Ladybug Romance)

A New Friend

 "H-hello?" I stammered, answering the phone that had so rudely awakened me from my peaceful slumber. Breaking my warm cocoon of blankets and reaching my bare arm out into cold morning air immediately put me in a foul mood. My eyes were still closed and I had no idea who was waiting on the other end of the line. Whoever my fiendish caller turned out to be would soon be getting an earful about waking me up so early on a Sunday morning.

"Did I wake you?" a beautiful voice asked causing my eyes to shoot right open and my heart to dance. "I can call back later if you would like to get some more sleep." All of the sudden, the anger within me dissipated leaving only the strong desire to eternally listen to this voice.

"No, Adrien," I nearly pleaded, "don't hang up. I'm okay. I promise."

Adrien laughed, "Alright, Mari, I'll keep talking then. I was calling to see if you had any plans for the day. It would be nice to get some alone time together after our extravaganza yesterday, don't you think?"

It felt as if dozens of tiny ladybugs were fluttering throughout my stomach at the thought of spending the entire day with Adrien; we had never done that before. Not an entire day just to ourselves anyway. I sat up in bed overlooking the expanse of my bedroom below. Looking around, with still partly cloudy eyes, everything seemed to be normal. That was until I caught sight of a lumpy figure sprawled out across my chaise. After thoroughly rubbing my eyes, I could see that the sleeping figure below was none other than Chloe Bourgeois.

Memories of the previous night's escapades flooded my mind as I remembered how I had rescued the conceited blonde as Marinette, not as Ladybug. Chloe had spent what seemed like hours crying into my shoulder before I gently lead her to my room offering her a place to sleep. Along with that offer, a promise had been made to stay with her for as long as she needed today. My heart sank as the reality sunk in that I would have to turn down Adrien in order to spend the day with Chloe, my former nemesis.

Taking a deep breath I answered, "Adrien, I am so sorry. I actually already have plans for today."

"That's okay," he abruptly replied, "I'll see you tomorrow at lunch. Goodbye Marinette." With that, he hung up the phone leaving me a little confused at his harsh response and all alone with a sleeping Chloe in my bedroom.

I quietly descended down the ladder from my bed and gathered some clean clothing to change into, pausing for a moment to look at the girl slumbering before me. It had been roughly four years since I had seen Chloe. Looking at her now, I could see that she was nothing like I had remembered. Her hair had grown significantly longer, nearly reaching all the way down her back, and the features of her face seemed somehow softer and less severe than they had been in high school. However, it wasn't the physical differences that had me in awe; it was, in fact, her behavior, her personality, something about the vulnerability that she had shown last night that had me thinking that something about Chloe had really changed.

The first rays of the the sun's soft light were beginning to peek through the windows. Rarely ever did I wake up before my room was completely brightened, and I was extremely tempted to scramble back up my ladder into the warm embrace of my bed sheets. However, Tikki silently flew to my shoulder motioning for me to head to the bathroom only speaking once we had made it into the security of that tiny sanctuary.

"Marienette, I never got the chance to speak to you about what happened last night." I cupped my hands reaching them out so that Tikki would have a place to sit as she spoke to me. She gracefully landed upon my palms and continued, "You were amazing, Marienette. That was all you. You saved Chloe by your own courage and your own strength."

I opened my mouth to reply, but Tikki held out her hand as a sign for me to keep quiet. "I know that at times you have doubted yourself, thinking that the heroic part of you had been left behind the day that Ladybug was no longer needed." She paused giving me a few seconds to let what she had said sink in. She was right. I had always felt that I had lost a part of myself when I gave up being the famed superhero. Everything that had made me strong was simply, gone.