Stuck

Chapter Two: In Which Our Heroes Get Hungry

'You can't either?!' I exclaim.

'No, mi'lady. I just have a very strong urge for Camembert.' he replies.

'What?' I'm very confused.

'My kwami loves camembert.'

'Oh. Um, ok. What should we do now?' I bite my lip. What are we going to do?

'Where are you? We should probably meet up.'

'Oh, I'm on m-, um Marinette's roof. You know her right? She lives above a bakery, near Francois-DuPont College.' That was close.

'Okay. Be right there bugaboo.' Chat winks and then disconnects the call.

A few seconds later, I see him popping up among the rooftops and chimneys until he jumps down right in front of me.

'So, mi'lady, no chance of us finding out who we are at the moment?' He smiles.

'Chat, this is serious,  we could be stuck like this forever! What about school, friends, family? I love being Ladybug, but...' I trail off. Chat takes my hands in his. I look up into his green eyes.

'Ladybug, we're going to fix this, okay? Everything will be fine, I promise.' I smile weakly. 'Hey, plus it'll mean we get to spend more time together. Whenever I see you there's always an akuma crashing the party.'

'And what do you want me to do? Ask the akuma nicely if it can go away so we can talk?' I stick my tongue out, the tears that were pricking my eyes before disappearing. We're quiet for a moment before Chat says 'Can we go to the bakery? I'm hungry.' I can't think of a reason why not. I'm a bit hungry as well.

'Sure, why not.'

'Yes! The croissants here are the best!'

'Really?' Haha, like I wouldn't know.

'Yeah. The people who run it are really nice as well.'

'That's cool.' We jump down onto the sidewalk and walk into the shop. As usual, it's nice and clean with all the cakes and pastries in the glass cabinets. Maman's standing at the bench with Papa behind her making some more baguettes.

'Ladybug! Chat Noir! What are you doing here?' She's surprised to see us but also a little worried. Well, who wouldn't be? I mean, we show up when there's an akuma and just about only then. And the last time we were here, the bakery got kinda trashed.

'Oh, we're just a bit hungry.' I smile. Chat's looking at the cabinets.

'So you make and ice all these?' He's looking at the batch of cupcakes I made this morning.

'Yes, every morning. Most of the time our daughter Marinette ices them though. She's very artistic.' Chat nods. Suddenly, I realise something. We don't have any money to buy anything.

I go over to Chat and discreetly elbow him while Maman's turned away to serve another customer. 

'Do you have any money?'' His eyes widen.

'No.'

'Silly kitty. What are we going to do now?'

'Lucky Charm?'

'But I've used it already, Chat, remember?'

'Yeah, but you've got all the spots on your earrings back.' He glances at my earrings.

'Oh, it could work.' After Maman's finished serving the customer, I go up to her.

'Uh, Ma- dam, could we go up to the roof?' She looks a little confused but then shrugs her shoulders.

'Sure. My daughter Marinette's up there but she'll be fine. She'd probably love to meet you two.' She smiles. 'Just go right up the stairs, her room's at the top with the skylight.' We smile and thank her, then head upstairs. I lead the way with Chat following.

'We've been here a few times before, haven't we?'

'What?' I say, startled. At first, I think he's talking about how I live here but then I realise he can't be.

'You know, I mean, I came here for Evillustrator to help Marinette out, remember? You had that super-secret mission you still won't tell me about and then we were here with Troublemaker a few weeks ago.'

'Oh, yeah. It's a nice place though, isn't it?' We reach the top of the stairs and I push open the trapdoor that leads into Marinette's - well, my room - room open. We climb up and Chat looks around.

'This is such a cool room, you know? I mean, it's not the fanciest, but it's nice.' Chat says as he enters. I smile.

'Yeah.' I walk up to the bed and climb the little ladder leading up to it. Meanwhile, Chat's looking around at all my things, mostly the board of pictures of Adrien. Well, at least he doesn't know it's me, even if he does know Adrien.

'She must really like this guy, huh?'

'Chat, it's rude to go through people's stuff, especially if they're not there.'

'Yeah, okay.' He comes over and climbs up the ladder to sit beside me. I unlatch the skylight and pull myself up.

'Hey bugaboo, why did you ask to go up onto the roof?' Chat asks.

'Curiosity killed the cat, didn't it?' I stick my tongue out at him, 'I just felt weird doing it in the middle of the store when there wasn't an akuma or anything.'

'Oh, okay.' Chat shrugs.

'Lucky Charm!' I fling my yo-yo up into the air and down with it comes a credit card.

'Looks like lunch's on me.' I jump back down into my room and start heading for the trapdoor when Chat grabs my arm.

'Ladybug, wait! What if you transform back? I mean, do you want everyone down there knowing who you are?' I look at my earrings in the mirror. There are still four spots left, wait, no, three now.

'Right. I'll just stay here for the time being then.' Chat nods.

'Of course, I don't mind finding out who you are mi'lady.'

'Chat, you know that no one can know our identities.' He nods sadly and turns back to my desk.

'Hey, look! She's started making a Chat Noir shirt' The one time I try to make something based off one of us, of course, Chat's here to see it. I walk over to have a look anyway.

'Oh, this is cute.' I say, pointing to a Ladybug themed pyjama pants I had finished last night.

'Marinette's really good at this kind of stuff.' I comment.

'Yeah. Did you know she makes her own clothes?' CHat asks.

'Really? Huh, I had no idea.' I feign innocence. I look at my earrings in the mirror again and I see that they've gone back to full charge.

'Well, looks like I'm still not changing back, kitty.'

'So what are we waiting for? I'm hungry!' He goes to the trapdoor to get it open but can't. Oh yeah, after Troublemaker, it's always been a bit stiff. I shake my head and come over to help him.

'You gotta push it to the left a bit if it's stuck.' I explain. He tries it and miraculously, it works! Wow, I'm such a genius when it comes to getting out of my own room. Chat smiles up at me and then starts going down the stairs as fast as he can. Well, he's hungry.

Again, I hope you like it. After the next couple of chapters, publishing will probably slow down a bit because all this was pre-written. Anyway, hope you like it. Vote & comment as always. Until next time!