Stuck

Chapter Twelve: In Which They Have Breakfast & Brainstorm

It takes a few minutes but we arrive at the cafe, a quaint little place with flower boxes spilling everywhere and cute painted wooden tables and chairs. We walk in and it's very quiet, with only the two waitresses chatting behind the till with a guy in chef whites behind them in the kitchen. They straighten up when they see us and start low-key fangirling. One of the girls goes really quiet but still smiles at us while the other one starts going on about what the cafe offers and how they're a big fan. It takes a while but we order and sit down at a booth in the corner and wait for our meals.

'So, m'lady, what are we going to do today?' Chat asks conversationally.

'Well, I guess there'll be an akuma or two probably and of course, there's 'looking' for u-' the waitress comes over then with our plates so I hastily change my wording, 'those two missing people.'

'The pancakes?'

'Yep.' The waitress places the plate in front of me and the plate with two croissants in front of Chat.

'And the juice?' the other waitress comes over with the drinks. Chat nods and she puts it in front of him, putting my hot chocolate in front of me at the same time.

'Thanks.' We smile and they both walk off, whispering and casting furtive glances at us from across the counter.

'We should write a note, say we're fine but...um,' Chat trails off, 'I don't know what we would write.' I think for a moment, racking my brain for an excuse for disappearing like this. I can't think of anything though.

'I-I don't know.' I say slowly, having a sip of my hot chocolate. We're both quiet, thinking until Chat says, 'Hey, on an unrelated note, could you tell me who Rena and Carapace are? I mean, since we know each other out of the mask and all that, I assume I know them and they seemed really close last time we saw them.'

'Oh yeah, uh, Chat, they're our best friends.'

'What? You mean, like Alya and Nino.'

'Yeah.'

'I'm blind. I'm officially blind.' I smile at Chat's antics, 'First you, now them. It'll turn out I know Hawkmoth or something now, won't it?'

'I'm sure it won't Chat.'

'Yeah, probably, but still.'

'Actually, you reminded me, we should check the Ladyblog, see if there's anything about us.' I say after a moment of awkward silence. I take out my yo-yo and search the Ladyblog. One of the pros of having a magic yo-yo is that you don't need to worry about wifi passwords or data costs. It comes up almost instantaneously and I can see several new posts, mostly about how Adrien and I are missing and if anyone who sees us could call them but there's a couple about us in the akuma battle yesterday along with a video.

'Nothing much.' I comment, 'Just the same stuff from yesterday along with the thing about Adrien and Marinette.'

Soon enough, we've finished our breakfast. By that time, it's nearly eleven so we decide to head off to the school. I pay and in a couple of minutes, we arrive and enter our class. Everyone's there already, apart from Sabrina who must be away again.

'Ladybug, Chat Noir! Have you found anything new?' Alya runs up as soon as we walk in.

'Not yet Alya, but we'll find them. Don't worry.' She nods and I give her a hug. Her eyes are red from crying but she smiles slightly and goes back to her seat beside Nino. Chloe comes up to us next.

'Hey Ladybug, Chat Noir, if you need me, I can be Queen Bee to help you look.' She offers. Even though I know that she doesn't like me (although she's almost always trying to attach herself to Adrien) ever since she first became Queen Bee, she seems to be trying harder at being nice to everyone. She actually seems to be worried about both of us being missing.

'Uh, yeah, okay, maybe later. We just need to sort out a few things first. Do you know where Miss Bustier or Officer Rogers is?' Chloe points them out in the cluster of people by the windows and then goes back to her seat where she's sitting alone since Sabrina's away. We walk over to the window where Miss Bustier's desk is now positioned and see that everything has been cleared off and it now has a map of Paris spread out. Here and there, there are pins stuck in the map.

'What are the pins for?' Chat asks.

'Oh, they're places where they might be or where someone has seen them.' Miss Bustier explains.

'People have seen them?' I ask surprised. I mean, I know that no one's seen Marinette for sure, but was Chat lying when he said he was Adrien? Is he not Adrien? My thoughts start spiralling until Miss Bustier explains.

'Wel, it wasn't actually them, it's just people who look similar. A girl doing fencing yesterday who looks a bit like Marinette was seen leaving here yesterday afternoon and there was a boy who looked similar to Adrien near the movies as well.'

'Oh, okay.' That makes sense. It must have been Kagami who was fencing yesterday. Maybe they thought I cut my hair or something?

'What's the plan for today then?' Chat asks.

'Well, we're thinking that maybe this morning we'll do more stuff in here, try and find out why they might have run away or anything. If you two would prefer to be out searching for them, that's fine, seeing as you don't really know them. There'll be a police team out and about as well.' Miss Bustier explains.

'No, we'll stay and help you figure out things in here.'

The next twenty minutes pass by organising everyone until finally, in the end, everyone has split off into separate groups to try and brainstorm how or why we might be missing. Chat and I are in a group with Alya, Nino and Chloe. We decide to go into a different room considering the number of people in the class. After pulling up some chairs to a table in the library, we start brainstorming.

'So...any ideas?'

***

Hi! So how'd you like it? Sorry, it's a bit shorter than my other updates, I've had a bit of writer's block as well as other stuff. The next update is probably either just before Christmas or just after at some point. Have any of you watched Chameleon? Sorry for the mistake in the last update, I wrote that before I knew that season three was coming out in December. Either way, it's a good episode so I might bring Lila in later on, who knows? Anyway, if you want, vote and comment, I love reading all your comments and hope you have a nice day/night. Until next time!